


Survival Of The Innocent (Book 1 of Fates Entwined)

by MEJ2235



Series: Fates Entwined [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Arena AU, Coran knows all, Found Family, Galra Keith (Voltron), Hunk (Voltron) is a Good Friend, Hunk (Voltron) is so Pure, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Keith (Voltron) Angst, Keith (Voltron) has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Keith Gladiator AU, Lance cares, Mom Red, Other, Parental Red Lion (Voltron), Protective Allura (Voltron), Protective Coran (Voltron), Protective Hunk (Voltron), Protective Lance (Voltron), Protective Lotor (Voltron), Protective Matt Holt, Protective Pidge | Katie Holt, Protective Shiro (Voltron), Protective Voltron Lions, Protective Voltron Paladins, Quintessence (Voltron), Quintessence-Sensitive Keith (Voltron), Red is best mom okay, Shiro (Voltron) Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Space Dad Shiro (Voltron), Space Uncle Coran (Voltron), Supportive Coran (Voltron), cinnamon roll keith, spacedad
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-24
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:34:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 37,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27699037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MEJ2235/pseuds/MEJ2235
Summary: One deca-phoeb, a Galra female kept the Galra from finding the Blue Lion. However, her ship received damages and she crashed. A human found her, badly injured, and took care of her. With time, this human gained her trust and affection. A baby boy was born to them and they were happy. They though nothing could ruin their happiness; they were wrong.The Galra picked up the signals of the Blue Lion and returned to Earth. She left to protect her family and the Lion but her husband followed her. He helped, but did not survive. The Lion was safe but she had lost her lover and her little child had lost a father. She took him with her, in the hope of keeping him safe and protecting the Lion, but they were captured by the Galra. She was forced to fight for their lives in the arena, but lost her own eventually. Her child grew up, learning the Galra customs and fighting styles, fighting - no, surviving - in the arena. He befriended other gladiators and taught them how to survive, even the Champion.Together, the Champion and the child escaped, headed to Earth, in hopes to protect what had cost the child so much and could change the fate of the entire Universe.
Relationships: Allura & Coran & Hunk & Keith & Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt & Shiro, Keith & Krolia (Voltron), Keith & Lance (Voltron), Keith & Lotor (Voltron), Keith & Pidge | Katie Holt, Keith & Shiro (Voltron), Keith & Voltron Paladins, Matt Holt & Keith, Matt Holt & Keith & Shiro, Voltron Lions & Voltron Paladins
Series: Fates Entwined [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2025728
Comments: 44
Kudos: 105





	1. Escapism

**Author's Note:**

> A Voltron AU where Keith grew up in the arena and met Shiro there. Only plot is mine. I also upload once a fortnight (every two weeks) and there are many chapters to come!
> 
> This book is available on my main main account on WattPad with the sequel but I decided to upload here as well when I realised how much I love this site!

"No, no! No. You took my hand. What more do you want?" Shiro yelled, consciousness fading.

"Stop! I want him awake enough to feel this," the Mad Doctor orders before attacking the sentries, "Listen to me. We don't have much time. Wake up!" He shakes Shiro, "Zarkon has located the Blue Lion of Voltron on your planet, Earth. You must get it before he does."

"What are you doing?" Shiro asks confused as the Mad Doctor helps him up.

"I've planted a bomb to cover your escape. Get to a pod, now," orders the Mad Doctor.

"Who are you?"

"I am Ulaz. Now, come on! Zarkon will know that I released you, so I must disappear. But, if you survive, go to the coordinates in your arm. The Blade of Marmora is with you," the newly named Ulaz says, shoving him out of the door.

"Why are you helping me?" Shiro asks, unable to comprehend why a Galra would help him.

"As a fighter and a leader, you give hope. Hurry! Earth needs you. We all do," Ulaz tries to hurry him.

"Okay... Wait! No, I can't leave!" Shiro almost yells, delirious from the alien equivalent of anaesthetic.

"Why not?" Ulaz sighs, annoyed.

"I'm not leaving him!" Shiro growls angrily, obviously irritated that the Galra expects him to leave him.

"The kit?" Ulaz asks.

Shiro nods.

"Alright, I understand why you want to go back for him. He can help you escape as well. Let's go, but be quiet and quick."

Ulaz heads down the different hallways, helping Shiro along, avoiding sentries, in a way that can only be learned through practice and time - obviously he has travelled and snuck down these and similar hallways. Eventually, they reach a door with a small window for guards to check on the prisoner, not like any do anymore, due to the prisoner's docile reputation. Shiro stood up straight, more aware, despite the anaesthetic, and peeks through the window.

Inside, what can only be described as a lean older teenager sits against the wall, curled up, seemingly asleep. He has pale skin, black hair, fairly thick eyebrows, and blue-gray eyes that seem purple in certain lighting. He has uneven-cut bangs that tend to sweep to the left of his face, length averaging just under his eyes, but framing his face slightly longer and curled at his cheekbones. The rest of his hair reaches the base of his neck, wildly flaring out in curved strands that tend to sit on top of his tattered prisoner clothing and the red jacket he wears only whilst in his cell. He has two strands of hair that sprout from the top of his head. If Shiro didn't know him better, he would think he was asleep, but he does and he knows that the kid doesn't trust anyone fully and is always cautious - after his childhood, Shiro isn't surprised - so he is always half-awake, waiting for a threat.

Shiro knocks on the door, quietly, using their special knock. The kid moves, instantly looking at the door and nods, knowing Shiro is able to see them. Ulaz uses the scanner to open the door and the kid walks out slowly. He looks at Ulaz with distrust but quickly masks it and gives him a small grateful smile. He turns to Shiro and hugs him.

"Alright, then. Enough with the sappy reunion. You've got to get out of here," Ulaz interrupts.

The kid and Shiro both nod and separate, gathering themselves. When Ulaz ushers them on their way, telling them he'll buy them time and get another way off this quiznacking ship, Shiro stumbles slightly and the kid easily catches him. The kid throws Shiro's arm around him and acts as a crutch. As they walk down the hallways, following the kid's knowledge of the best way to the escape pods, Shiro uses his knowledge of the sentry patterns to keep them out of sight as long as possible.

The bomb's go off and the explosion knocks the entire ship, sending the kid and Shiro off balance and into a sentry. Shiro's hand immediately activates, on instinct, and slices through it's chest. Unfortunately, this attracts the attention of the other sentries and soldiers in all the nearby hallways. Alarms begin to blare at the newfound knowledge of the two escapees.

They run down hallways, as best they can whilst avoiding being shot and Shiro still slightly out of it, and make it to the escape pods. The kid places Shiro in the pod carefully but a sentry shoots the control panel, when the kid dives away to avoid said blast. Shiro tried to reach out for the kid, when the door shuts, and Shiro is separated from said kid. He immediately rams the door to try and force it open. He can't lose the kid, not again. He rams it again and again. The kid gets up and hears Shiro ramming the door. He dodges a few shots and draws his knife, striking down all the sentries. He immediately runs back to Shiro. Shiro pants and the kid can see tears threatening to escape his eyes. The kid smiles, despite how much it hurts, tears brimming in his eyes, placing his hand on the glass that separates them. Shiro does the same. They both place their foreheads against the glass.

"I'm so sorry. I broke my promise," Shiro says, slightly muffled by the heavy-duty door.

"It's not your fault. Don't worry. I'll find another way," the kid grins, tears finally falling.

Shiro reaches his hand up in an attempt to cup the kid's face and wipe his tears away, but the glass prevents the action and his hand is forced to rest against said glass. The kid begins to laugh sadly at the attempt, before turning away from Shiro, beginning to look for another way off the ship. He walks at first before running down the hallways, dodging shots fired, ignoring Shiro banging on the door and yelling his name. He ignores the telltale sound of the engines starting and how they fade along with Shiro's yelling and banging. But he doesn't ignore the relief that floods his body or smile that appears on his face when he sees the guns are deactivated and unable to shoot Shiro down.

He doesn't ignore the smile he gets from hearing his name used because someone cares for him.

"Keith!"


	2. Explosive Exit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stuck by himself again, Keith is left with one option. Fight for his freedom.

Keith had no idea where he was going. He just knew it felt like the right way. Left, left, straight, faster, right, left, right, right, faster, faster. By the time Keith recognised the hallways, he was moving too fast to stop. The first sentry was dealt with as he passed. The next few he felt with with ease, running on walls to avoid getting shot. As he travelled, he began to take diversions, no longer listening to the feeling fully as he recognised the route, avoiding the more heavily guarded hallways. 

Eventually, he all the hallways were as guarded as each other. Keith stopped at the end of one of these hallways and gripped his dagger tighter, mentally preparing himself to make a dash for the door they were all guarding.

In.

And...

Out.

Keith ran. He used his momentum to strike the first few soldiers down, run on the walls slightly to avoid getting shots, slashing downwards to behead a sentry, dodging past another soldier, hitting the back of his head with his dagger to knock him out and avoiding getting shot. He dashed towards the door, used the scanner to open it and immediately ran inside, closing the door quickly.

Immediately, he was shot at. Again.

Easily, he dealt with them. Again.

As he took a moment to catch his breath, Keith looked around the familiar room; it was huge and empty, except for one thing. Machines held a giant red forcefield, slightly suspended, but it was what was inside this forcefield that held the Galra's interest: a huge, red, mechanical lion. This lion was one of five that form something known as Voltron, which was the only weapon that could defeat Zarkon.

The lion was deactivated, like it had been for a long time. The only time it had showed any life was when Keith snuck in here for the first time, when he was younger, and the commander came to 'collect' him. He had been upset and tired of life, at the time, when this same feeling caused him to leave his cell and come to this room. He had felt safe here and told the lion everything. It had been a burden off his chest and that feeling had changed to comfort him. He stayed there for who knows how long; it was the first time he felt nothing but happy since his parents. Then the commander found him. He wasn't happy. It had scared Keith and the lion had reacted. It activated and glared at the commander, growling the entire time. The commander had taken a step back at that. Keith was forced to calm the lion down and left peacefully with the commander. After that, he was kept under constant watch when he left his cell.

He walked up to the red forcefield and rested his hand on it.

"Hey Red. Want to get out of here?" He asked his m-lion.

The lion roared in response, the forcefield deactivating, and it lowered its head, opening its mouth for Keith to enter.

"Thought so. I've been waiting for this," Keith said, stroking the lion's jaw affectionately.

Banging could be heard from the door and Keith immediately walked into the lion's mouth. The lion closed its mouth once Keith was inside and stood back up. Keith say in the pilot's chair and got ready to leave.

"Alright Red. Let's do this. I promised to find Shiro, after all," the lion purred affectionately in agreement and Keith laughed.

Their moment was ruined when the door was blown up by Galra lead by Sendak.

"Stop him! Don't let him escape!" Sendak ordered.

The lion's response was to shoot Sendak. In the face. With a laser. 

Sendak, however, dodged the blast, much to the lion and Keith's displeasure. The other Galra took that as their cue to charge the lion, who simply swiped them away with its tail. Rather than wait for them to recover, they blasted a hole in the wall and flew out, just as the alarms went, causing many soldiers to be blown out into space.

Outside the ship, Keith could easily see the damage caused by Ulaz's distraction at the other end of the ship to the escape pods. However, he doesn't have time to breathe as the ship starts firing at him and the lion but the lion is fast and agile. He listens to the lion and his instincts and is able to dodge the large majority of the lasers, only being hit a few times. They eventually manage to put enough distance between them and the ship so that they are out of range.

They fly faster in random directions until they are out of range of the ship's scanners, before setting course for Earth. The lion purrs lowly to Keith, telling him to rest whilst she heads to Earth. He relents eventually and agrees.

"Don't worry Shiro, I'm coming."


	3. Earth Ending

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chasing after Shiro wasn’t an option, so going to the same place he was headed was the only choice available. He didn’t expect to have to save some human teens.

Stupid lion! This was Keith's first thought when he woke up. Red had pushed herself whilst he slept, using a wormhole to reach Earth, despite being injured during their escape. She had woke him up when they had reached Earth's atmosphere and her injuries caught up with her, causing her to fall to the surface like a fireball. Keith had barely been able to stabilise her enough so she wasn't damaged much more, in the water or he was injured.

"Alright Red. Stay here. Rest and heal, understood?" Keith orders.

Red whines in worry but Keith won't have it, "No. You need to rest and heal so when I get Shiro, we can leave."

Red relents and growls to tell Keith to be careful who replies with "I will."

Keith leaves Red in a cave and heads to an old, abandoned, wood shack he had seen, once he regained control of Red and flown into a cave for her to rest. The shack seemed to have been forgotten. Keith easily broke the door down and was surprised at how familiar the inside was. He walked inside and removed a floor board to find a box. Inside was a dusty photograph and a black jacket. The photo was of a human male and a Galra female smiling happily whilst cradling a baby in their arms. Keith recognised the Galra as his mother and realisation struck him.

This was his family. His home.

Keith couldn't believe it. His entire life was with the Galra. He had faint memories of a man and lion carvings in many tunnels but nothing substantial. He had always just considered them dreams or desires. Now, he knew they were real memories, just faded.

Water dripped onto the photo and Keith looked around for a leak, wondering why there was water way out here in an abandoned house like this. When this yielded no results, Keith felt his cheeks and realised they were wet. Keith wipes his tears away and let out a happy laugh. 

He finally had somewhere to call home. 

Red expressed her concern through her bond but Keith reassured her, telling her he was happy through said bond. 

Keith placed the photo in the floor again with the jacket and started to look around for some form of transport. He eventually found a hovercraft out back with lots of spare parts. He fixed it up easily, thanks to him having experience using some of the worst quality parts to make high-quality gear when he was with the Galra. 

By the time he was done, it was dark out. Keith decided to test drive the hovercraft when no one would see him. He drove around the empty land for a long while until he saw something fall out of the sky.

"Shiro..." Keith whispered.

Then the hovercraft flew off a cliff whilst he wasn't paying attention. Keith quickly gathered himself, ignoring Red's panicked whines, and managed to activate the hovercraft at the right time so he didn't crash at the bottom of the cliff and headed towards where he saw Shiro crash. Red immediately let out a relieved sigh before ranting at him. Keith listened and apologised. 

Eventually, he found where Shiro was - well, he assumed Shiro was - covered with human activity and came up with a plan to rescue him. Red reluctantly agreed to Keith's plan. 

Keith left some bombs far enough away for him to be able to get Shiro and go without being seen and close enough for the humans to feel threatened by them and investigate. He made sure he was close by when he set the bombs off. As soon as the humans were far enough away, he headed for the building where he figured Shiro was.

Inside, Keith could hear voices.

"These readings are off the chart."

Keith was angry. How dare they treat Shiro like some kind of experiment? He ran into the room and easily knocks them out, ignoring them yell out "Hey!" in surprise. He runs to the table where Shiro was strapped down, surprised to see him like this, considering Shiro told him Earth saw him as some sort of hero. It felt like the Druids lab. He was kinda glad Shiro wasn't awake since he would probably have a panic attack at this situation. 

"Shiro...?" Keith breathes, stroking his cheek in disbelief that he is seeing Shiro again and in relief that he is actually here, tears threatening to fall.

Keith quickly wipes them away and cuts Shiro free from his bonds. He tries to carry Shiro out but is stopped by three strange humans. Keith barely stifles a growl and tries his best to get into a fighting stance. The tall lean one scowls at Keith and approaches them, obviously ignoring Keith's aggressive signs.

"Nope. No you—No, no, no, no, no, no, no you don't. I'm saving Shiro," the lean one says and lifts Shiro over his shoulder, causing Keith to scowl.

"Who are you?"

"Who am I? Uh, the name's Lance," the newly named Lance says, seemingly expecting Keith to somehow recognise him but Keith just stares at him silently without recognition.

"Are you an engineer?" Keith gambles.

"No, I'm a pilot at the Garrison," Lance gloats.

"Are you a cargo pilot?" Keith asks, not understanding why someone like this would be able to be a fighter pilot.

"Well, not anymore. I'm fighter class now."

"Well, congratulations."

Keith couldn't care less and would never admit that he was glad to have some help carrying Shiro, since he was still recovering from his injuries from the Galra as well. He is especially glad when one of them spots the humans returning and gives them some warning.

"Oh, man, they're coming back and they do not look happy. We gotta go. Uh, do you mind if we catch a ride with you?" The larger one stutters out nervously.

Keith supposes he owes them and doesn't say anything as they board his hovercraft, or when it tips over slightly until the smaller speaks up.

"Is this thing going to be big enough for all of us?" Keith subconsciously notes the feminine side to the voice and how the speaker is a small female but seems to be trying to pretend to be male.

"No," is Keith's simple answer as he is forced to take off, the humans pursuing them and the girl holding onto Shiro.

"Why am I holding this guy?" The girl asks.

"Hey, we did all fit!" The large one exclaims.

"Can't this thing go any faster?" Lance complains.

"We could toss out some non-essential weight," Keith replies, irritated at Lance's childish behaviour.

"Oh, right! ... ... ... OK, so that was an insult. I get it," Keith almost facepalms at the obliviousness of this one.

"Big man, lean left!" Keith yells and the big one complies, making the hovercraft turn, causing the other humans to crash.

"Aw man! Mr. Harris just chiked out Professor Montgomery! ... No, no, he's fine," yells the big one.

"Big man, lean right!" Keith yells and the big one once again complies but this time, the hovercraft jumps from one cliff to the next, causing another human to crash.

"Guys? Is th-th-th-tha-tha—Is that a cliff up ahead?" The big one points out, having spied the cliff's edge ahead of them. 

"Ooooh no, no, no! No, no, no, no—!" Lance screams.

"Yup," Keith smirks, increasing the speed whilst everyone screams, causing the hovercraft to jump off the cliff.

"What are you doing?! You're going to kill us all!" Lance screams.

"Shut up and trust me!" Keith yells, thoroughly irritated by Lance at the moment.

Keith safely avoids crashing, doing what he had done earlier, and continues to fly into the desert towards the wood shack, escaping the humans.

Keith approaches Shiro standing outside the shack at sunrise. He resists the urge to hug Shiro, knowing an experience like that leaves him on edge and likely to lash out on instinct.

"It's good to have you back," Keith grins.

"Heh. It's good to be back," Shiro smiles softly at the kid he took under his wing when they were with the Galra.

"So what happened out there? Why..... did they do that?" Keith asks, still slightly in shock.

"I wish I could tell you. My head's still pretty scrambled. I remember you and an alien ship. My feelings associated with those memories are mixed: mainly happy with you. How did you know where I was?" Shiro puts his hand on Keith's shoulder.

"A friend. Talking about that, I need to show you something," Keith turns and returns to the shack, followed by Shiro.

Inside, Keith pulls up the floor boards and removes the jacket and photo.

"What are those?" Shiro asks.

"A family photo and my father's jacket. I want you to have it."

"I can't do that."

"Please, Shiro. It's all I have left of him and you’re the only one I trust with it," Keith practically begs.

"Alright," Shiro takes the jacket and puts it on, a small smile on his face, "But that's not everything, right? What have you been working on?"

"I can't explain it, really. After our separation , I kinda... ended up in the area and... felt myself drawn out to this place. It's like something... some energy, was telling me to search."

"For what?"

"Well, I didn't really know at the time... until I stumbled across this area. It's an outcropping of giant boulders with caves covered in these ancient markings. Each tells a slightly different story about a blue lion, but they all share clues leading to some event, some arrival happening last night. Figured it was you," Keith says, vague as always, lying about how he remembers the carvings from when he was a baby and was actually fixing up the hovercraft.

"... I should... thank you all for getting me out. Lance, right?"

Shiro offers Lance his prosthetic hand. Lance hesitated but shakes it. When Shiro offers his hand to Pidge and Hunk, Pidge is the only one who shakes it.

"The nervous guy's Hunk. I'm Pidge. So, did anyone else from your crew make it out?" Keith takes note of her interest in the crew Shiro has told Keith about when they first met, asking Keith to find information on them, which he did willingly.

"I'm not sure. I remember the mission and being captured. After that, it's just bits and pieces," Shiro looks over at Keith who shakes his head, indicating now is not the time.

"Yeah, sorry to interrupt, but back to the aliens. Where are they now? Are they coming? Are they coming for all of us? Like where are they at this very moment?" The newly named Hunk asks, showing his nervous side.

"I can't really put it together. I-I remember the word "Voltron". It's some kind of weapon they're looking for, but I don't know why. Whatever it is, I think we need to find it before they do," Shiro says, scratching his head but stops when he sees Keith look away, like he does whenever he lies or is hiding something.

"Well last night, I was rummaging through Pidge's stuff, and I found this picture. Look it's his girlfriend," Hunk says, surprising Keith at his attitude towards his supposed 'friend' and that he doesn't realise that that girl is Pidge.

Hunk shows everyone the picture and Pidge steals it back, screaming, "Hey, gimme that! What were you doing in my stuff?"

"I wa—I was looking for a candy bar. But then, I started reading his diary."

Hunk pulls out Pidge's diary which she steals back and screams, mortified, "WHAT?!"

"And I noticed that the repeating series of numbers the aliens are searching for looks a lot like a Fraunhofer line," Hunk says, surprising Keith that the normally nervous and soft giant is so smart.

"Frown... who?" Keith asks.

"It's a number describing the emission spectrum of an element, only this element doesn't exist on Earth. I thought it might be this Voltron, and I think I can build a machine to look for it, kinda like a Voltron Geiger Counter."

"Hunk, you big, gassy genius!" Lance yells.

"It's pretty fascinating, really. Th-The wavelength looks like this," Hunk says, pulling out a graph of the wavelength that Keith grabs from him.

"Give me that," Keith matches the wavelength's appearance to an array of boulders he saw during his test drive to a picture he assumed his father took.

Keith, Shiro, Lance, Hunk and Pidge arrive at the location that Keith had recognised with Hunk's device. Keith can hear and feel Red's worry about the strangers and even Shiro. He reminds Red mentally that Shiro is a friend and that the others haven't done anything wrong but he will keep his guard up. He is so busy conversing with Red that he is slightly surprised when Lance speaks up, "... OK. I admit it. This is super freaky."

"I'm getting a reading," Hunk informs them.

He used the device to locate a cave with ancient carvings inside.

Shiro asks, "What are these?"

"These are the lion carvings I was telling you about. They're everywhere around here," Keith replies with a distant look in his eyes, faded memories of happier times long past fading into his consciousness.

He is suddenly pulled back to reality by a familiar but different energy and Red roaring in delight. Keith sees the carvings all light up and Lance touching one, surprising everyone. Keith has a faint grin on his face, knowing what this means.

"Whoa... Whoa!" Lance calls out in surprise.

"Heh, they've never done that before," Keith laughs, almost giddy in anticipation for what is about to happen.

Keith feels the blue lion below, reaching out to him, recognising Keith from his visits as a baby. The blue lion gives him a moment's warning before the ground beneath everyone collapses, causing them to fall into a cavern of water. Lance is the first to look up and see the blue lion inside a forcefield.

"They are everywhere," Lance says.

"Is this it? Is this the Voltron?" Pidge asks.

"It... must be," Shiro says in awe.

"This is what's been causing all this crazy energy out here," Keith mutters to himself, approaching Blue when Blue says it's alright, everyone else slowly following, "Looks like there's a force field around it," Keith informs the others.

"Does anyone else get the feeling this is staring at them?" Lance asks, causing Keith to grin, knowing that Lance can subconsciously feels the connection.

Shiro looks at Lance out of the corner of his eye before saying, "Hmm... No."

"Yeah. The eyes are totally following me," Lance acknowledges.

As soon as Lance says that, Blue asks Keith to touch the forcefield to try and hint to Lance to touch it himself without specifically saying so. Keith runs up to the forcefield and touches it but the forcefield stays, Blue telling the cub to wait and watch.

After a moment of waiting, Keith decides to give Lance a push and says, "I wonder how we get through this."

This seems to do the trick as Lance says, "Maybe you just have to knock."

Lance literally knocks on the forcefield, which reacts, dissipating and igniting the area around them in blue. Everyone sees an image of Voltron forming from five lions in their minds except Keith who saw it from Red. He smiles at everyone's faces and nods at Blue in acceptance at the secret it revealed. He quickly hides it as they all come to reality, whilst asking Red if her repairs are done mentally to which she replies with a growl that translates to a frustrated yes. Keith laughs mentally at this and his companions reactions to what they just saw, something he's known for a long time.

"Woah..." everyone but Keith (who already knew about Voltron) and Hunk (who is speechless) says.

"Uh, did everyone just see that?" Lance asks in shock.

"Voltron is a robot! Voltron is a huge, huge, awesome robot!" Hunk yells, freaking out.

"And this thing is only one part of it! I wonder where the rest of them are," Pidge says, voicing what the rest - except Keith, of course - were thinking.

"This is what they're looking for," Shiro says in shock as well.

"Incredible," Keith decides to say something that he has thought, ever since he first heard of Voltron.

Blue suddenly lowers its head and opens its mouth to allow them inside, terrifying Hunk and Pidge. Lance hesitates, but gleefully enters. Keith smiles as he hears Blue's laugh, already happy with its pilot's enthusiasm and bravery. Lance takes a seat in the cockpit and Blue purrs happily to Keith about how he can't wait to fly again.

"Here we go," Lance says.

The seat jolts forward, making Lance scream, and the command console activates.

Lance recovers and says, "Heheh! All right! Very nice!"

Hunk decides to speak, "OK guys, I-I feel the need to point out, just so that we're all, y'know, aware: We are in some kind of futuristic alien cat head right now."

Lance senses Blue communicating with him, which Keith takes note of and decides to play dumb when Lance says, "Whoa, did you guys just hear that?"

"Hear what?" Keith asks.

"I-I think it's talking to me. Hmm... Um..." Lance replies and presses a few buttons, causing Blue to stand up and roar in anticipation at flying again and causing Hunk and Pidge to scream.

"OK. Got it. Now let's try this," Lance says.

He smashes Blue out of the Cavern and takes of flying, doing somersaults and wild turns in the air, mainly due to Blue being so excited to be flying again, terrifying everyone but Lance (who was having the time of his life).

"YOU ARE. THE WORST. PILOT. EVER," Keith yells, more due to the fact he is letting Blue do what it wants than Lance actually being bad at flying.

Lance joins in on the screaming and Blue lands and runs along the desert at high speed.

"Isn't this awesome?!" Lance calls to the rest of them.

"Make it stop! Make it stop!" Hunk screams.

"I'm not making it do anything. It's like it's on autopilot!" Lance calls back as Blue takes off into the sky.

"Where are you going?!" Keith cries out to Blue, not realising he said it out loud.

"I just said it's on autopilot! It says there's an alien ship approaching Earth. I think we're supposed to stop it," Lance screams back, causing Keith to do a double take at the mention of 'alien', now knowing what the word means to humans.

"What did it say, exactly?!" Pidge cries, Keith practically ignoring her, trying to listen to Blue and calling out to Red.

"Well, it's not like it's saying words, more like feeding ideas into my brain. Kind of," Lance replies.

"Well, if this thing is the weapon they're coming for, why don't we just, like—I don't know, give it to them? Maybe they'll leave us alone. Sorry, Lion, nothing personal," Hunk says, something Keith has begun to expect, despite their lack of time together, but still has to resist the urge to facepalm at his naivety.

Luckily, Shiro explains why that is not an option before Keith has the opportunity, "You don't understand. These monsters spread like a plague throughout the galaxy, destroying everything in their path. There's no bargaining with them. They won't stop until everything is dead."

This causes everyone to stare at Hunk who runs his neck and says embarrassed, "... Oh. Never mind then."

As Blue leaves the Earth's atmosphere, a warship from the Galra Empire suddenly appears. Everyone gasps and Keith clenches his fist.

Hunk is first to speak, "Uh... Holy crow! Is that really an alien ship?!"

"They found me..." Shiro says what Keith is thinking.

The Galra ship opens fire and Keith feels Red approach.

"We've got to get it out of here!" Pidge cries.

"I'm done playing dumb. Blue get them out of here and keep them safe. Open the hangar. Red I'm on my way," Keith says, leaving Blue's head.

"Wait! Keith!" Shiro calls out in desperation, afraid to lose him again.

"Don't worry Shiro. Trust me," Keith flashes them a grin, before stepping backwards out of the now open hangar doors that close as soon as Keith is out.

"Hang on!" Lance cries, piloting to dodge the onslaught of laser guns whilst Shiro cries out for Keith,"Ah! All right! OK, I think I know what to do!"

"Be careful, man! This isn't a simulator!" Pidge yells.

"Well, that's good. I always wreck the simulator," Lance says, using Blue's mouth cannon to blast the length of the warship. He is joined by a red lion, blasting and expertly dodging the Galra's attacks with little effort, impressing the crew of Blue at how in sync the pilot must be with his lion.

"Let's try this," Lance says, using Blue's claws to tear into the warship's side and is once again joined by the red lion following his lead.

Shiro congratulates Lance, "Nice job, Lance!"

"OK, I think it's time to get these guys away from our planet," Lance says, but the Galra warship pursues Blue and the red lion.

"Oh, no!" Hunk cries.

Pidge yells, "They're gaining on us!"

"It's weird. They're not trying to shoot us. Th-They're just chasing," Lance observes.

"OK, seriously, now we think having aliens follow us is good? I am not on board with this new direction, guys," Hunk stutters out.

Keith's face suddenly shows up on Blue's screen, in what seems to be a red version of Blue's cockpit.

"Keith!" Everyone yells.

"Heh. Good to see you all as well. This is the friend I mentioned earlier Shiro," Keith pats Red affectionately.

"Nice to meet you? Thanks for looking after Keith," Shiro replies uncertainly.

"Where are we?" Keith asks, never actually being anywhere near Earth before.

"Edge of the solar system. There's Kerberos," Shiro supplies.

"It takes months for our ships to get out this far. We got out here in five seconds. Hey Keith? Where are you?" Pidge asks.

"I want you all to meet Red. She's part of Voltron, like Blue," Keith smiles at their shocked expressions but before anyone can ask Keith any questions, a wormhole appears before them.

"What is that?!" Hunk yells.

"Uh, this may seem crazy, but I think the Lion wants us to go through there," Lance says, uncertain for the first time.

"Not crazy," Keith says.

"Where does it go?" Pidge asks.

"Dunno," says Keith.

"M-me either. Shiro, you're the senior officer here. What should we do?" Lance asks.

"Whatever's happening, the Lions and Keith know more than we do. I say we trust them, but we're a team now. We should decide together," Shiro says, causing the team to look at each other in silence.

"The lions know what they are doing and will protect us. Trust me."

This seems to fill the now considered team with a bit more confidence as they all nod and turn back to the wormhole.

"... All right. Guess we're all ditching class tomorrow," Lance says.

"I've got to do something real quick. Me and Red will meet up with you soon," Keith informs them, flying off in a different direction.

Blue enters the wormhole which disappears before the Galra warship can follow. Red immediately speeds off, hoping to lead the Galra away from Blue, the others and their destination.


	4. Emergence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith, the only one aware of what is happening, is gone. Now, the three students and the no-longer-missing officer have no choice but wait to see what’s ahead.

The team minus Keith groan from the turbulence of the Wormhole and exit to find themselves in a different part of the universe.

"Whoa. That was..." Lance says, speechless.

Hunk grunts and vomits in Blue, pausing only to say, "So sorry—" before continuing to vomit.

"I'm just surprised it took this long," Pidge states.

"I don't recognize any of these constellations. We must be a long, long way from Earth," Shiro supplies.

"The Lion seems to want to go to this planet. I think... I think it's going home," Lance says as Blue blast towards the planet, entering its atmosphere, causing the team (minus Keith) to huddle closer together from the intense turbulence.

"Guys, personal space! Hunk, your breath is killing me," Lance yells.

But Hunk is preoccupied and says, "Um, is it just me or is anyone else having second thoughts about flying through a mysterious Wormhole? Why are we listening to a robotic lion anyway?"

"It got us away from that alien warship, didn't it?" Lance says.

"I don't know if you noticed, but we're in an alien warship," Pidge replies.

"Oh, are you scared?" Lance asks cockily.

"With you at the helm? Terrified," Pidge replies.

"All right, knock it off! No one's happy to be in this situation, but we're here now. If we want to get through this, we've got to do it together," Shiro says frustrated.

"So, what do we do?" Pidge asks.

"First, we find out where we're headed. Lance?" Shiro asks.

"I don't know. I'm sorry. The Lion's not talking to me anymore. ... Wait! Wait, wait, wait! Shh! Listen. I think I hear something," Lance shushes them as a high-pitched squeal sounds.

"I'm hearing it, too," Pidge says.

"It's, uh—It's kind of a—a high-pitched squeal?" Hunk analyses.

Lance farts, causing the team to hold their noses in disgust and yell out, "Come on, Lance!"

"But seriously, there's a Castle up ahead," Lance says.

Everyone is amazed as Blue approaches the castle and the latent Castle reactivates. Blue stands in the courtyard.

"Wow," Pidge says in admiration.

"Keep your guard up," Shiro orders.

"Something wrong?" Pidge asks.

"My crew was captured by aliens once. I'm not going to let it happen again," Shiro replies.

The team exits the blue lion. Once they are all out, Blue stands up, startling everyone and causing Hunk to cry out in fear, "Oh no! Oh no! I knew it was going to eat us! No!"

Blue roars, opening the Castle's doors, Hunk cowering behind Shiro - despite his large size - until the doors finish opening.

"Oh, the door is open. Guess I was wrong about you."

The eerie silence bemused the team as they enter the vestibule, but is broken by Hunk calling out, "Hellooo?" Hunk's voice echos in the emptiness while everyone stares at him, startled. Hunk shrugs.

"From the size of the Lion, I expected these steps to be bigger," Pidge observes.

A beam of light suddenly appears as the vestibule activates. Everyone gasps in surprise as a computer speaks up and says, "Hold for identity scan."

"What?" Pidge asks, confused.

"Why are we here? What do you want with us?" Shiro questions, almost desperately.

"Whoa!" Lance and Pidge cry out as crystal tor's he's light up a path.

"I guess we're going that way," Pidge says.

As the team moves onwards, following the torches, more crystal torches ignite to lead them deeper inside. Hunk's voice echos as he calls out, "Hello? ... Hellooo?"

The team arrived at the Sleep Chamber of the Castle and Hunk once again calls out, "Hello?"

"Where are we?" Lance asks.

"It's some kind of control room," Pidge observes, looking at a console that suddenly activates, making two sleep pods rise from the floor.

The team inspect the pods as Hunk asks, "Are these guys... dead?"

One of the pods opens, revealing a human-looking woman with pointed ears and small, pink facial markings under her eyes who instantly awakens and cries out, "Father!"

Lance immediately catches the woman in his arms. He blushes at the sight of her and dons a suave persona, saying, "Hello."

"Who are you? Where am I?" The woman asks confused.

"I'm Lance. And you're right here in my arms," Lance replies with a cheesy pick-up line.

"Your... ears."

"... Yeah?" Lance hesitates slightly.

"They're hideous. What's wrong with them?" The woman asks.

"Nothing's wrong with them! They heard exactly what you said about them!" Lance cries out, offended.

The woman grabs Lance by the ears and put him in a restraining hold, immediately interrogating him, saying, "Who are you? Where is King Alfor? What are you doing in my Castle?"

"A giant blue lion brought us here! That's all we know!" Lance cries out as the woman tugs on his ears.

"How do you have the Blue Lion? What happened to its Paladin? What are you all doing here? Unless... How long has it been?"

"We don't know what you're talking about. Why don't you tell us who you are? Maybe we can help," Shiro tries, slightly worried about his friend.

"I am Princess Allura of Planet Altea. I've got to find out where we are and how long we've been asleep," Allura introduces herself and instantly starts to work, accessing the console by placing her hands on it, causing a screen to appear.

"Okay, that's how that works," Pidge observes.

The second pod opens, revealing a ginger, male alien with a moustache that resembles Allura and gasps at the sight of Lance, crying out, "E-Enemy combatants!"

The other alien jumps towards Lance but Lance side-steps him so the alien loses his balance, crying out, "Quiznak! You're lucky I have a case of the old "Sleep Chamber Knees". Otherwise, I'd grab your head like this, wrap you up like so and—One, two, three—", the alien imitates his fighting moves and snaps his fingers dramatically, "—Sleepy time!"

"Well, before you did that, I'd—Hoo! Ha! Hiyah!" Lance cries out, imitating rudimentary karate, "—Like that."

"Oh, Really?! Well how could you do that when I've already come at you with this?!" The alien bends down and pretends to strike repeatedly, "Ha, ha, ha, ha-ey!"

"Man, these guys are good," Hunk observes.

"It can't be..." Allura says in shock.

"What is it?" The alien asks, concerned.

"We've been asleep for 10,000 years!" Allura cries out, recalling her last memory of being awake, a distant look in her eyes.

_She stood in the Bridge of the Castle of Lions with Coran and her father, King Alfor. The Castle was under attack by Zarkon's fleet. Zarkon appeared on screen._

_”Zarkon!" King Alfor yelled angrily._

_”Your fleet has been destroyed, Alfor. I will be there shortly to claim Voltron," Zarkon ended the transmission and a Galra warship blasted the Castle with a powerful cannon._

_”Father, we must form Voltron and fight before it's too late!"_

_”It's already too late. We must send the Lions away. We can't risk them falling into Zarkon's hands," King Alfor decided._

_”We can't give up hope!" Allura cried._

_”I'm sorry, daughter. If all goes well, I will see you again soon," King Alfor said and used a mysterious light to put Allura asleep._

_"Father...!"_

_King Alfor smiled sadly, "I love you."_

"Planet Altea and all of the planets in our solar system have been destroyed. Coran, Father is gone. Our entire civilization..." Allura becomes enraged and yells, "Zarkon!"

Shiro recalls his face and asks, "Zarkon...?"

"He was the King of the Galra. A vile creature and enemy to all free people," Allura informs them.

"I remember now... I was his prisoner."

"He's still alive? Impossible!" Allura yelled.

"I can't explain it, but it's true. He's searching for a super weapon called Voltron," Shiro tells her.

"He's searching for it because he knows it's the only thing that can defeat him, and that's exactly why we must find it before he does," Allura decides.

Meanwhile

At Zarkon's Central Command, the head Druid, a witch called Haggar, is surrounded by glowing purple crystals and scrying for information on a magic circle. Suddenly, sensing something, Haggar leaves to inform Zarkon that, "The Blue Lion has returned, and now I feel a resurgence of Altean energy."

"Alfor's daughter lives? How?" Zarkon asks.

"I know not, but it is time to reclaim what is rightfully ours," Haggar replies.

"Yes. I shall wipe that foul race from the universe forever and take back Voltron. Contact my commanders," Zarkon orders.

On a Galra warship, a Galra is charging his prosthetic arm before he is interrupted by his inferior, Haxus, who has a message, "Emperor Zarkon requests an audience."

The Galra receives Zarkon's video transmission at the warship's Bridge, "Commander Sendak, the Princess of Altea is alive and hiding in your sector. We believe she alone holds the whereabouts of the remaining Lions. Your battle fleet is the closest to her location. Retrieve her and the Lions. With them all, the Galra Empire will be unstoppable."

"I fight for the Empire. I conquer in the name of Galra. No foe has ever stood in my way and none ever will. Vrepit sa!" Sendak replies, saluting and Zarkon ends the transmission.

"Set a course for Arus," Sendak orders.


	5. Endangered Enforcers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meeting Aliens was unexpected, but this day is full of surprises. There’s a few more down the road.

In the Castle, Allura stands at the Sleep Chamber console with a plate of food goo floating nearby.

"Princess, you must eat. It's been 10,000 years!" Coran says.

"I'm not hungry."

"Man, 10,000 years? That's like one thousand plus ten," Lance says.

"That's times ten," Pidge says.

"Whatever."

"I haven't eaten since breakfast and I'm starving," Hunk says.

"Yeah, but you've thrown up, like, five times," Pidge points out.

"Hmm... Good point," Hunk agrees and begins eating the food goo, even continuing to eat even though he was thoroughly disgusted.

"I can't believe your civilization created such advanced technology 10,000 years ago. It must have been an incredible place," Shiro says.

"Yes, it was... but now it is gone and we're the last Alteans alive," Coran replies.

Allura mourns as Coran comforts her until she hears a squeak from her sleep pod and is happy to find four Altean mice.

"Looks like we're not the last, after all," Allura smiles but the moment was interrupted by the Castle's alarms blaring and a Galra warship appearing on-screen.

"A Galra battleship has set its tracker to us!" Coran yelled.

"How did they find us?!" Allura asked, surprised.

"I'm not sure, but I bet it's Keith's fault," Lance says

"Say whatever you've got to say to make yourself feel better... after getting us stuck on the other side of a Wormhole!" Pidge defends Keith.

"I'LL STICK YOU IN A WORMHOLE!" Lance yells at Pidge.

Lance and Pidge appear ready to fight but Shiro separates them by yelling, "Stow it, cadets! This is no time to place blame, it's time to work as a team. How long before they arrive?"

"At their speed? Oh, well, uh, carry the two... I'd say probably a couple of days?" Coran calculates using his fingers.

"Good. Let them come! By the time they get here, you five will have reformed Voltron, and together, we will destroy Zarkon's empire!" Allura says.

Hunk burps and apologises, "Sorry! Food goo."

"Princess, there are five of these Lions. How are we going to find the rest?" Shiro asks.

In the Castle's Bridge with a Crystal above, Allura stands in the center.

"King Alfor connected the Lions to Allura's life force. She alone is the key to the Lions' whereabouts," Coran informs the paladins as Allura activates the computer, opening up a map of the entire universe.

"Whoa!" Everyone yells.

"These are... coordinates. The Black Lion looks like it's in the same location as the Blue Lion," Pidge observes.

"Look at your primitive synapses firing away in their little brain cage!" Coran compliments.

"Very observant. That's because the Black Lion is in the Castle," Allura informs the paladins.

"To keep the Black Lion out of Zarkon's hands, King Alfor locked it in the Castle. It can only be freed if the other four Lions are present," Coran explains.

"As you have found, the Lions choose their pilots. It is a mystical bond and cannot be forced. The Quintessence of the pilot is mirrored in his Lion. Together, they form something greater than science can explain," Allura explains and sends the black lion hologram towards Shiro, "The Black Lion is the decisive head of Voltron. It will take a pilot who is a born leader and in control at all times, someone whose men will follow without hesitation. That is why, Shiro, you will pilot the Black Lion."

Allura moves the green lion hologram towards Pidge, "The Green Lion has an inquisitive personality and needs a pilot of intellect and daring. Pidge, you will pilot the Green Lion. The Blue Lion—"  
Lance interrupts Allura, "—Whope, hold up, let me guess: Takes the most handsome slash best pilot of the bunch?" Lance smiles and Allura looks annoyed and then continues.

"The... Yellow Lion is caring and kind," Allura says and sends the hologram of the yellow lion towards Hunk before continuing, "Its pilot is one who puts the needs of others above his own. His heart must be mighty. As the leg of Voltron, you will lift the team up and hold them together," Hunk questionably points to himself.

"The Red Lion is temperamental and the most difficult to master. It's faster and more agile than the others, but also more unstable. Its pilot needs to be someone who relies more on instincts than skill alone. We will need to find a paladin like that. Unfortunately, I cannot locate the Red Lion's coordinates yet. There must be something wrong with the Castle. After 10,000 years, it... might need some work."

"Don't worry, we'll find it soon. They don't call me "The Coranic" for nothing. It's because it sounds like "mechanic." So... Coranic, mechanic. It's not—It doesn't sound... exactly like it. It's similar," Coran says and the hologram lions roar and charge together, forming Voltron.

"Once all the Lions are united, you will form Voltron, the most powerful warrior ever known, the Defender of the Universe," Allura says.

"Awesome!" Hunk exclaims.

"Oh..." Pidge replies.

"Um... Allura?" 

"Yes Shiro?"

"We have actually met the red lion and its paladin."

"That's great news! Where are they?"

"About that..." Shiro trails off.

"Mullet decided to ditch us at the Wormhole that took us here," Lance finishes.

"Keith did promise to come find us though," Pidge interjects.

"That... isn't all that comforting. I hope this 'Keith' gets here in time," Allura says worriedly.

"He will," Shiro assures her.

"Wait. Okay, we're going to be in there and flying Lions. Got that part. How do Lions turn into legs? Also, is this going to be a long trip? Because I have to pee. Do you people pee?" Hunk starts to ramble.

"You know we don't have much time. Pidge and I will go after the green lion. Lance, you take Hunk and get the yellow one. Coran, Allura, if you locate that Red Lion or are contacted by it, go get it and Keith," Shiro orders.

"In the meantime, I'll get this Castle's defenses ready. They'll be sorely needed," Allura says.

"I'll ready a pod a-and load in the coordinates so that you can reach the Green Lion," Coran agrees to the plan.

The two teams take off: Lance with Hunk in the blue lion and Shiro and Pidge in a flight pod. Allura readies herself to open a Wormhole with the Castle's power whilst Coran explains, "We can only keep the Wormholes that lead to the other Lions open for two of your Earth hours, so you'll have to be quick about your work. The good news is that according to my readings, both planets are relatively peaceful. So, if you do get stuck, they could be relaxing places to live out the rest of your lives. Enjoy the trip!"

"Wait—" Pidge cries.

"Wait! What? No! OK—!" Lance yells.

"I did not receive the memo on this," Hunk states.

Shiro and Pidge arrive at the densely-forested green planet and explore it using an Altean compass.

"Look!" Pidge yells and points towards a canoe with a lion carved as its bowsprit.

A sloth-like alien suddenly appears beside them, starting them and causing them to yell.

"It's just a... whatever... that thing is," Pidge says when she calms down and the sloth-like alien recognises the Voltron symbol on Pidge's compass and gestures for them to get in the canoe, "I... I think he wants us to get in his canoe."

"Then I guess we should go."

"Huh?" Pidge asks surprised.

"I've been locked up by aliens for a year. This is nothing."

Shiro and Pidge peacefully ride the canoe as the sloth-like alien paddles them towards the green lion, squeaks are heard from the inhabitants of the forest and Pidge asks, "I wonder if Hunk and Lance are having as good a time as us."

Meanwhile

Lance and Hunk are being chased by Galra fighter jets and coming under heavy fire. Both of them scream for dear life among the blaring alarms, yelling, "Oh, no! No, no, no! Oh! Oh, no!"

The Galra figher jets hit the Blue Lion with missiles, knocking it out of the sky and Hunk cries out, "I thought Coran said these planets were peaceful!"

"Maybe "peaceful" means something else in Altean!" Lance yells back, preventing the blue lion from crashing and flies towards a Galra mine.

Hunk pulls up an Altean compass, "According to the coordinates, we're right on top of the Yellow Lion. It's below there, where they're mining for the ore. They don't even know the Lion is there. Or maybe they just got here and they're digging for the Lion? What do you think, Lance?"

"Who cares? Just go get it! I'm dropping you down there."

"Me? Down there? No. No, no, no."

"Yes, I'll cover you!" Lance yells and dives the blue lion to the surface and runs it towards the mine under laser fire.

"No, what if the Yellow Lion doesn't work? Wh-What if I—What if I can't get in the mine? What if I start crying? It's too late! I'm already crying!"

"Sorry, no time for questions," Lance replies and quickly ejects Hunk who rolls towards the mine while Lance draws the heavy laser fire away from him. 

Hunk opens a mine lift's controls and starts hot-wiring them, muttering, "Oh Yeah, sure, just drop me off in an alien planet. That's cool, man. It's only occupied by mean purple aliens that want to kill me, but whatever. Just ignore them and go connect with a big, yellow, mechanical cat. Easy-peasy. Yeah. That all makes a ton of sense to me," The Galra lift goes down into them mine and Hunk continues talking to himself, "Cool...! Okay, I'm in a giant hole. Now what, Hunk?"

Hunks gets closer to the Yellow Lion, causing the carvings around him to glow and show a path, making him say, "... Ooh. Pretty," when a massive glowing circle appears in front of him, causing him to ask, "How am I... going to get through that?"

Hunk notices a mobile drill and begins to wonder, "Hmm? Hmm..."

Lance struggles while he flies the blue lion into the sky to draw the attacks. Hunk finds the yellow lion after drilling through the cave wall around it. Lance battles the Galra, but they start firing at the mine entrance, causing Lance to cry out, "Oh, no!" As the Galra fighter jets cause a massive explosion, "HUNK!"

Meanwhile 

Shiro and Pidge are still riding along peacefully in the canoe, but Pidge begins to have doubts, much like Hunk, ranting. "I know the Princess said that this is supposed to be my Lion, but what if she's wrong? I mean, she's probably not wrong. She's a princess, but I'm not a pilot, even though... I've always wanted to be a pilot. I mean, I read all the fighter manuals, but never got to fly the simulator. But, hey, I can't be all that worse than Lance. He crashed all the time. But what if I get in there and it doesn't respond? What if I get in there and it's too big and my feet don't touch the pedals? What if there aren't even pedals?!"

"You're rambling. Listen... Our commander on the Kerberos Mission is the smartest man I ever met, and he always said, 'If you get too worried about what could go wrong, you might miss a chance to do something great.'"

This makes Pidge smile fondly. The canoe stops at a root-covered stone temple and Shiro and Pidge approach the steps; the lion carvings glow from Pidge's presence, like with Hunk and Lance.

"Go. Be great."

Pidge grins and runs towards the temple's summit. Although nothing is found at the top, a growl is heard and light glows beneath Pidge. Pidge jumps inside of the temple and yells, "Whoo-hoo-hoo!" As the green lion finally breaks free from its tomb. 

Meanwhile

Lance is fighting the Galra fighter jets on the planetoid, saying, "Hunk, come on! Please, buddy!" When the Galra fighter jets hit the blue lion with a bombardment of laser fire and send it into a spin, causing Lance to yell out, "Oh, no, no, no, no, no! Going down! We're going down!"

The blue lion crash lands and struggles to stand. As the Galra fighter jets lock on and fire their missiles, Lance braces for impact, yelling, "Oh, no!"

Suddenly, the yellow lion appears, blocking the incoming missiles and flattening the figher jets with its own body.

"You okay, Lance?" Hunk asks.

"Hunk! I thought you were dead! You jumped in front of those shots to save my life!"

"Well, actually, I was trying to get out of the way. Thankfully, what this thing lacks in speed, it more than makes up for in armor. Man, can it take a beating! Ooh?" Hunk replies as Galra fighter jets fire more lasers, the yellow lion providing cover, "We've got incoming!"

Allura appears on the command screen of the blue lion and cries out, "Paladins, please hurry back! I can't hold the Wormhole much longer!"

"Let's get out of here!" Lance yells to Hunk.

The two lions fly towards the Wormhole, although the yellow lion starts twirling towards it after getting hit by one of the Galra fighter jets, causing Hunk to feel ill, "Ah—! Not this again...! Oh..."

"Quit screwing around, Hunk! The Wormhole is closing!"

Hunk and Lance safely reach the Wormhole.

Lance and Hunk groan as they enter the Bridge of the Castle of Lions where everyone waits.

"You made it," Allura observes.

"Yeah, just barely. That was a nightmare. I almost puked out there. I felt like Hunk!"

"Think how I felt. I am Hunk."

"Yeah... We had a tough time, too," Pidge says as Shiro and Pidge smile at each other.

"Did we find the Red Lion yet?" Shiro asks.

"Allura just located it. There's a bit of good news and bad news. The good news is, the Red Lion's heading our way. The bad news is, it will run into the Galra ship now orbiting Arus. But wait, good news again. We're Arus!" Coran replies.

"They're here already?" Shiro asks.

"Yes. Guess my calculations were a bit off. Finger counting—I-It's more of an art than a science. Hmm?" Coran replies.

A video transmission overtakes the Castle's screen, and Sendak appears, saying, "Princess Allura, this is Commander Sendak of the Galra Empire. I come on behalf of Emperor Zarkon, Lord of the Known Universe. I am here to confiscate the Lions. Turn them over to me, or I will destroy your planet," the transmission ends.

"All right, let's not panic," Shiro says.

"Not panic? Th-The scary purple alien thing is driving his battleship toward us. We only have four Lions," Hunk observes.

"Technically, only three working Lions," Pidge interjects.

"That's right. Thank you, Pidge. Three working Lions an-and a Castle that's, like, 10,000 years old," Hunk adds to his previous statement.

"A-Actually, it's 10,600 years old. You see, it was built by my grandfather—" Coran adds at the wrong time.

"Thanks, Coran. Thank you for that. See? Now is the perfect time to panic!" Hunk cries.

"Wait! This Castle has a particle barrier we can activate," Allura mentions.

"Girl, you've already activated my par—" Lance flirts.

"—Lance!" Shiro yells.

"The particle barrier won't hold Sendak's ion cannon forever. The Galra technology must have advanced since we fought them last," Coran replies.

"Panic now?" Hunk asks.

"No. We've just got to figure out our plan of action, aaand... figure it out quickly," Shiro says.

"I say we pop through a Wormhole and live to fight another day," Lance suggests.

"I second that. Yes. I mean, we tried to find all the Lions, right? We gave it the old college try. Couldn't do it. We only have three. We can't form Voltron. I man, I guess we could form a... snake? Or a worm! To go through that hole, Lance, that you were talking about," Hunk rambles.

"Then, it's settled. Allura, you ride with me. One of you take the old guy," Lance says, causing Coran to seethe.

"We can't just abandon Arus. The Galra will keep destroying planets and capturing prisoners until we stop them," Pidge says.

"Okay. If we run, then maybe Sendak will follow us and leave this planet alone, like when we left Earth. We form the snake-worm thingamajig and we—hisss out of here," Hunk changes his idea.

"Sendak could destroy the planet then come after us anyway. Staying is our only option," Pidge interjects.

"Here's an option: shut your Quiznak," Lance bites back.

"I don't think you're using that word correctly," Pidge replies.

"What do you know, Pidgeot?"

"We're staying."

"Leaving!"

"Staying!"

"Snake!" Hunk adds.

"Guys, stop! Princess Allura, these are your lions. You've dealt with the Galra Empire before. You know what we're facing better than any of us. What do you think is the best course of action?" Shiro asks.

"I... I-I don't know."

"Perhaps your father can help."

"My father?"

Coran takes Allura to the Castle's Memory Chamber where Allura asks him, "Coran, what is this?"

"King Alfor knew there was a chance he might never see you again. So, his memories, his very being, were stored in this computer for you," Coran replies.

Allura approaches the computer and a burst of light changes the Chamber to a vision of Altea. A holographic image of King Alfor appears from the computer, causing Allura to cry out, "Father! Father, it is so good to see you."

"Allura, my only child, how I've missed your face."

"... I'm so frightened. A Galra ship is set to attack, and I don't know what to do. Please, Father, I need your help."

"I would do anything to take this burden from you."

"I don't know if we should run to preserve what we have or stay and risk everything. I want to fight, but the Paladins of old are gone. I know what you would do."

"I scattered the Lions of Voltron to keep them out of Zarkon's hands. You urged me to keep them and fight, but, for the greater good of protecting the universe, I chose to hide them."

"I think I understand."

"No, daughter, you were right. I made a terrible mistake, one that cost the universe countless lives. Forming Voltron is the only way to stop Zarkon. You must be willing to sacrifice everything to assemble the Lions and correct my error."

Allura dons a space suit and returns to the Paladins in the Command Room, proceeding to give them a speech to raise moral, "You five Paladins were brought here for a reason. The Voltron Lions are meant to be piloted by you and you alone. We must fight and keep fighting until we defeat Zarkon. It is our destiny. Voltron is the universe's only hope. We are the universe's only hope."

"We're with you, Princess," Shiro replies.

Allura brings the Paladins to the armory holding the Paladin armor, making everyone hyped when Allura says, "Your suits of armor."

"Cool!" Lance nods in approval.

"Outstanding," Shiro smiles.

"Oh, neat!" Pidge grins.

Hunk starts comparing his body with that of his suit, doubting he will fit, "Hmm... Mmm... hmm."

"Princess, are you sure about this? They aren't exactly the best and brightest the universe has to offer," Coran asks.

"No, but they're all we've got," Allura replies.

"Boys, it's time to suit up!" Shiro orders as the new Paladins don their armor.

"This'll be here for you Keith when you join us," Shiro whispers to himself.

"The Bayard is the traditional weapon of the Paladins of Voltron. It takes a distinct shape for each Paladin," Allura informs them and the Paladins recieve their bayards, Pidge's becoming a small grappling hook with a knife head.

"Aw, you got a cute little bayard," Lance mocks.

Pidge strikes Lance and he is electrocuted, causing Pidge to reply with, "Yeah, it is pretty cute."

"Shiro, I'm afraid your Bayard was lost with its Paladin," Allura informs him.

"I guess I'll just have to make do."

"You could use the red bayard?" Allura suggests.

"No. It's Keith's. It'll be here, waiting for him. I'll make do," Shiro reassures the others.

They all gather in the Bridge of the Castle of Lions.

"You'll need to retrieve the prisoners from Sendak's ship," Shiro says, "I won't let innocents die because of us.

"That's a.. pretty big ship. How are we gonna know where the prisoners are?" Hunk asks.

"Oh, it's not a matter of 'we'. It's a matter of 'me'," Pidge replies.

"Pidge is right. Once we get in, she'll be able to hack the system and find where the prisoners are," Shiro agrees.

"I hope this Keith gets here soon. The red lion is extremely temperamental, but powerful. He'll have to have earned its respect and once he gets here, we can retrieve the black lion," Allura adds.

"He will be. All right. Here's our plan of attack," Shiro replies, narrating their plan as it proceeds, "The Galra Empire knows about the Blue and Yellow Lion, but they don't know we have the Green Lion, too. Hunk, Lance, you'll act as a decoy by pretending to give yourselves up."

Lance and Hunk approach the Galra warship with the blue lion and yellow lion. Pidge flies to the underside of the warship with the green lion undetected. Lance sends Sendak a transmission, "Attention, Galra ship. Do not fire. We're surrendering our Lions," the transmission ends.

"Hope this works," Lance mutters.

"While Sendak is distracted, Pidge and I will sneak onto the ship in the green lion. We will find the prisoners. Hunk, Lance, find some way to take down that ion cannon."

Pidge docks the green lion undereneath the warship, and then cuts a hole into the warship's hull. Shiro and Pidge infiltrate inside. The Paladins communicate through their helmets.

"Pidge, what's your ETA?" Lance asks.

"We're in," Pidge replies.

"Activate tractor beam," Sendak orders and the Galra warship unleashes a bright light.

"What's that thing?" Hunk asks.

"I think that's our signal to get out of here!" Lance says and he and Hunk pilot their Lions to flee the tractor beam.

"They lied to us. Launch fighters!" Sendak orders and Galra fighter jets deploy from the warship.

"Hunk, you dismantle the ion cannon while I take these jerks on a space ride!"

"Ten-four!"

Meanwhile

Inside the Galra warship, Shiro has an unnerving flashback, "I've been here before. After I was taken by the Galra cruiser off Kerberos, they brought us here."

"So, that means your other crewmembers, they might be held captive here. We... We've got to rescue them."

"Pidge, we don't have time. We have to get the prisoners we can and get back to Arus."

But we can't just leave prisoners here!"

"Look, no one understands that more than me, but, in war, we have to make hard choices. Now, let's get moving."

"No! Commander Holt is my father. He and my brother were the ones on the Kerberos Mission with you."

"Commander Holt is your father?"

"Yes. I've been searching everywhere for him and my brother. And I'm not going to give up looking when I'm this close. I won't!"

"I remember where the prisoners are held so we won't need to hack into the system and possibly expose ourselves."

A door opens nearby.

"So—Run!" Shiro cries, him and Pidge running down a hallway.

Meanwhile

Out in space, Hunk tries slamming into the warship's ion cannon but is blocked by a force field, crying out, "What the Quiznak? What is that? A force field?"

Meanwhile

On Arus, Allura tries to activate the Castle's particle barrier, "Particle barrier up!"

The particle barrier almost activates, but fails, causing Coran to ask, "Is that what's supposed to happen?"

Allura and Coran look inside the Castle's systems through a small hole.

"All the barrier crystals are out of alignment!" Coran observes.

"We have to fix it immediately. Without the particle barrier, we'll be defenseless."

"We're both too big. What can we do?"  
The Altean Mice suddenly show up and run inside the small hole squeaking.

"The mice!" Allura cries.

"How do they know how to do this?"

"I can hear them talking to me. I think our minds are connected. It must be from sharing the sleep pod for 10,000 years," Allura hypothesises as the Altean Mice put the crystals back in alignment and says, "Thank you, friends."

Coran is focusing intensely on the Altean Mice and looks like he is in pain.

"Coran, what are you doing?"

"I'm trying to get them to make me a sandwich."

Meanwhile

Shiro and Pidge come across a Galra drone. Pidge fires a beam from the Green Paladin armor before it can react.

"That thing saw us. We should get out of here," Shiro says anxiously.

"Wait. I think this might come in handy," Pidge says and reconfigures the drone, "Now, I'll just reset the controls... and it's working for us! I'm going to call you "Rover." Follow me!"

The newly named Rover follows obediently. Shiro leads Pidge to the prisoners' cell and Pidge orders Rover to assist, "Open up," Rover then activates the cell door.

"Excellent, Pidge."

"Dad?"

Shiro and Pidge enter the cell, but only find aliens.

"Don't be afraid. We're here to help you escape," Shiro calls.

"It's you... It's you, the Champion. If anyone can get us out of here, he can," one alien says to the others.

"Wh... What did you call me?"

"We don't have much time," Pidge reminds Shiro.

"Let's get to the escape pods. Let's go. Come on!" Shiro motions for the aliens to follow them and they comply. 

Meanwhile

Out in space, Lance is dodging the Galra fighter jets while Hunk struggles to take down the icon cannon's force field.

"Whoa-ho-ho! Yeah, buddy! This is way more fun without Hunk's barfing!"

Meanwhile

Shiro and Pidge bring the prisoners to the escape pods.

"Hurry!" Pidge yells.

"Halt!" A sentry calls and the sentries surround them.

Shiro grunts as his prosthetic arm painfully activates, glowing. Shiro struggles to hear anything as the sound around him becomes distorted to him.

"Shiro? Shiro, what's wrong?!" Pidge asks.

Shiro settles, and the sound around him returns to normal. He attacks the sentries at high speed with impressive strength and his glowing arm. The prisoners leave in the escape pod.

"Thank you, Shiro," the alien from before thanks him.

"Wait! How do you...?" Shiro asks.

"Shiro, that was amazing! Where did you learn to fight with that?" Pidge fangirls.

"No idea."

Meanwhile

In space, Hunk uses the yellow lion's mouth cannon on the force field, yelling, "Come on, just break, you stupid thing!"

The force field finally breaks, causing Hunk to yell, "Score one for Hunk!" and slam the yellow lion into the ion cannon, disfiguring it. The blue lion and green lion appear.

"You guys made it!" Hunk yells.

"Kitty Rose has left the stage!" Pidge calls out.

"Let's get the heck out of here!" Lance replies.

"I hope I stopped that cannon. I could barely make a dent in it!" Hunk yells back.

Meanwhile

"They released the prisoners!" A Galra that had clothes that made him look above the majority of the Galra reported.

"After them! Either we get those Lions or we blow this whole planet to cosmic dust! Fire the ion cannon!" Sendak ordered.

"Sir, the ion cannon has been damaged," the same Galra reported.

"Then, send the drones to fix it!" Sendak ordered.

Meanwhile 

In the Castle of Lions, the paladins greet each other warmly.

"I hope Keith gets here soon," Shiro mutters.

"From what I can tell, he'll be here soon," Coran replies.

The Castle's alarms blare to alert them Sendak's warship is approaching.

"Oh, Quiznak! That might not be soon enough!" Coran yells.

"Sendak is entering the Arusian atmosphere. We need Voltron now!" Allura yells.

All three lions launch from the Castle.

"The ion cannon is back online!" The Galra reports.

"Fire!" Sendak orders.

The warship fires its cannon and blasts the Castle; everyone is shaken from the blast, but survives.

"Man, those Galra guys repair things fast," Hunk observes.

"The barrier gets weaker with every blast. Once that shield goes down, the Castle will be defenceless," Coran reports.

"I can give you cover with the Castle defenses for a while, but we need Keith and to form Voltron now or we'll all be destroyed!" Allura yells.

"Jeez, no pressure," Hunk replies as a second blast from the ion cannon hits, weakening the barrier.

"Listen up, Team Voltron! The only way to succeed is to give it all you've got! This looks bad, but we can do this! Are you with me?" Shiro yells from the Bridge.

Lance, Hunk and Pidge all nod silently.

"I'm nodding. Is everyone else nodding?" Hunk asks.

"Yes," Lance And Pidge reply.

"Let's do this!" Shiro yells.

The lions run forward and exit the barrier under heavy fire from Galra fighter jets.

"Uh, how?" Lance asks.

"Good question. Does anyone have any ideas of how to hold off Sendak until Keith arrives?" Shiro asks.

"Snake?" Hunk suggests, only to be shot down with a resounding "No!" From all his teammates.

The Galra fighter jets continue to bombard them with attacks.

"This is insane! Can't they just cease fire for one minute so we can wait this out? Is that too much to ask?" Pidge yells frustrated and loses her temper and attacks the fighter jets, destroying two, "We've got to do something."

"Combine!" Hunk yells and slams the yellow lion into the blue lion, knocking it over.

"Hey!" Lance cries out.

"Okay, that didn't work," Hunk responds.

Allura and Shiro speak to the paladins on screen.

"Quickly, Paladins! Our energy levels are getting low!" Allura cries.

"Maybe if you fly in formation, you'll draw their attention. Take off on my cue. One, two, three, take-off," Shiro orders and the lions take flight.

"Here we go!" Pidge yells.

"Come on, come on!" Lance cries.

"Nothing's happening," Shiro observes.

"Hey, w-wait, wait, wait! I feel something!" Lance cries out in desperation.

"I do, too. I feel it. It's like we're all being pulled in the same direction!" Hunk yells back.

"Uh, guys, I think I know why. Look up," Shiro replies.

The paladins look up to see that they are caught in the Galra warship's tractor beam and are unable to escape.

"What the cheese?" Lance asks.

"Sendak's ship is sucking us in like a black hole!" Pidge observes.

"Send a report to Emperor Zarkon: 'The day is ours," Sendak orders.

The warship blasts the Castle of Lions particle barrier, destroying it.

"Oh, no!" Shiro cries.

"I-I don't care what you say, Shiro. I'm panicking now!" Hunk says and starts screaming.

"It can't end here!" Pidge yells.

"This is it!" Lance cries.

"It's been an honor flying with you boys," Pidge yells.

"Oh, no!" Hunk yells.

"No! We can do this. We have to believe in ourselves. We can't give up. We are the universe's only hope. Everyone is relying on us. We can't fail! We won't fail! If we work together, we'll win together!" Shiro tries and the paladins all yell, "Yeah!"

Suddenly, a flash of red flies past, destroying the tractor beam and bashing into the ion cannon, saving the Castle of Lions from destruction by diverting the blast. A roar sounds and the paladins turn to see...

"Keith!"

A video feed shows up on the lion's screens to show Keith, slightly out of breath, smiling widely.

"Hey guys. Looks like I got here just in time. Did ya miss me?" Keith asks.

"Of course!" Hunk yells.

"It's good to see you mullet," Lance smiles in relief.

"Thank you!" Pidge thanks him.

"I missed you Keith," Shiro smiles warmly.

"Alright paladins. The cannon is temporarily out of order and we have the four lions. We can retrieve the black lion and form Voltron now! We have a chance! Return immediately!" Allura orders and the paladins obey. 

In the Castle of Lions, the four claimed lions wait by the door securing the black lion as Shiro stands before it. 

"Why isn't anything happening?" Shiro asks.

"I don't know. It should," Allura says desperately.

Hunk, Pidge, Lance and Coran all start panicking and Keith facepalms. He hears the lions laugh.

"Oh shut it you lot!" Keith growls.

This gets the others to be quiet, making Keith turn to them and say, "Not you guys. Them," and points at the lions.

"You can hear the lions?" Allura asks Keith as everyone stares in shock.

"Yes."

"Amazing... Do you know why they won't unlock this door?" Allura breaths.

"Yes. They are waiting for you to ask nicely."

"Wait, as in please?" Lance asks in disbelief.

"Yes," Keith deadpans.

The paladins do this and the lions all roar to show Shiro is the new Black Paladin. Coran cheers and Allura is relieved. The Castle's alarms blare to alert them Sendak's warship is approaching again.

"Oh, Quiznak! They're back," Coran calls.

"Sendak is entering the Arusian atmosphere. We need Voltron now!" Allura cries and Shiro runs and enters the Black Lion and all five lions launch from the Castleship.

"The ion cannon is back online!" The higher ranking Galra reported.

"Fire!" Sendak ordered and the warships fires its cannon and blasts the Castleship; everyone is shaken from the blast, but survives.

"Man, those Galra guys repair things fast," Hunk observes.

"The barrier gets weaker with every blast. Once that shield goes down, the Castle will be defenceless," Coran informs them.

"I can give you cover with the Castle defenses for a while, but you have to form Voltron now or we'll all be destroyed!" Allura orders them.

"Jeez, no pressure," Hunk replies as a second blast from the ion cannon hits, weakening the barrier.

"Listen up, Team Voltron! The only way to succeed is to give it all you've got! This looks bad, but we can do this! Are you with me?" Shiro yells.

Lance, Hunk, Pidge and Keith all nod silently in reply.

"I'm nodding. Is everyone else nodding?" Hunk asks, worriedly.

"Yes," Lance, Pidge and Keith reply.

"Let's do this!" Shiro yells.

The lions run forward and exit the barrier under heavy fire from Galra fighter jets. Keith immediately hears all the lions roaring in anticipation for the upcoming battle.

"Uh, how?" Lance asks the question everyone wants to.

"Good question. Does anyone have any ideas of how to form Voltron?" Shiro asks and Keith hears the lions talk about paladins and teamwork but can't hear much over the Galra shooting, them roaring over each other and his team yelling in panic.

"I don't see a "Combine Into Giant Robot" button anywhere on my dashboard," Hunk says as the Galra fighter jets bombard them with attacks.

"This is insane! Can't they just cease fire for one minute so we can figure this out? Is that too much to ask?" Pidge asks and loses their temper and attacks the fighter jets, destroying two. 

Keith fires the Red Lion's tail cannon to destroy two more, Red telling him to be careful and wait for it, and yelling, "We've got to do something."

"Combine!" Hunk cries in desperation and slams the Yellow Lion into the Red Lion, knocking it over, Keith hearing Yellow apologise and Red growl in anger.

"Hey!" Keith yells.

"Okay, that didn't work," Hunk says dejectedly.

Allura speaks to Shiro onscreen, yelling, "Quickly, Paladins! Our energy levels are getting low!"

"Maybe if we fly in formation, we'll just combine. Take off on my cue. One, two, three, Voltron!" Shiro says and the lions take flight.

"Here we go!" Keith yells as the lions cheer at the familiarity.

"Come on, come on!" Lance begs.

"Nothing's happening," Shiro says.

"Hey, w-wait, wait, wait! I feel something!" Lance cries and Keith hears the lions cry out in worry.

"I do, too. I feel it. It's like we're all being pulled in the same direction!" Hunk yells and Keith nearly facepalms.

"Uh, guys, I think I know why. Look up," Shiro says and the two see that the lions are caught in the Galra warship's tractor beam and are unable to escape.

"What the cheese?" Lance asks.

"Sendak's ship is sucking us in like a black hole!" Pidge observes.

"Send a report to Emperor Zarkon: 'The day is ours," Sendak says as the warship blasts the Castle of Lions particle barrier, destroying it.

"Oh, no!" Shiro cries.

"I-I don't care what you say, Shiro. I'm panicking now!" Hunk starts screaming.

"It can't end here!" Pidge cries.

"This is it!" Lance yells.

"It's been an honor flying with you all," Keith says, mainly talking to the lions, secretly shaking in fear at such a familiar ship actually taking him back to where he had spent his entire life.

"Oh no!" Hunk yells.

"No! We can do this. We have to believe in ourselves. We can't give up. We are the universe's only hope. Everyone is relying on us. We can't fail! We won't fail! If we work together, we'll win together!" Shiro says, inspiring his team.

"Yeah!" The rest of the team yell, Keith smiling as he hears the lions roar in agreement and excitement at how the Paladins are united, allowing the lions to break free to form Voltron, saving the Castle of Lions from destruction by diverting the blast with a single punch to the cannon.

"Voltron!" Sendak snarls.

"I can't believe it!" Keith laughs, surprised at the power Voltron showed.

"We formed Voltron!" Pidge celebrated.

"I'm a leg!" Hunk cries.

"How are we doing this?" Lance asks.

"I don't know, but let's get that cannon!" Shiro orders.

While Voltron destroys the warship, Sendak and the higher Galra soldier - Haxus - flee. Allura and Coran meet the exhausted Paladins in front of the Castle of Lions.

"Good work, Paladins!" Allura congratulates them.

"Thanks, pretty lady," Lance flirts.

"We did it," Shiro smiles.

"Heck yeah, we did," Keith celebrates.

"How did we do it?" Shiro asks.

"I was just, like, screaming the whole time. Maybe that did it," Hunk suggests.

Pidge, however, looks dejected from not finding either missing family member; Shiro places a hand on Pidge's shoulder. Keith looks at Pidge apologetically and understanding.

"We're not going to stop searching until we find your brother and father. Wherever they are, I know they'd be proud of you," Shiro assurés Pidge who smiles.

"We won the battle, but the war has only just begun. I'm afraid Zarkon will not stop until he gets these Lions," Allura ruins the good mood.

"Good thing you Paladins know what you're doing, because you're going to have to form Voltron again and again," Coran adds.

"Totally—Wait, what?" Hunk asks in confusion and surprise.

"We barely survived forming Voltron this one time," Lance informs him.

"And you only had to fight one ship. Wait until you have to fight a whole fleet of them! It's not going to be easy being the Defenders of the Universe," Coran goes on, not easing any minds.

The Paladins appear surprised at the title; they look at their lions.

"Defenders of the Universe, huh? That's got a nice ring to it," Shiro says.

Everyone smiles at the lions. Keith hears the lions agree with Coran and offer their support and reassurances. He hears Red promise to be there for him and protect her cub, causing him to smile in appreciation.


	6. Enraged

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just what was Keith getting up to?

Red and Keith dodge the blasts from the Galra warship as they lead them away from the direction where Blue took the team mere ticks ago and Earth.

"Come on Red. Just a little longer. Then we can lose them and loop around to meet up with the others," Keith mutters encouragement.

Red grumbles and growls in worry, not wanting her cub to be vulnerable for longer than necessary. Keith simply ignores Red, focusing on the enemies outside, Red taking control when she feels she needs to. This continues for a little while but time flies for Red and Keith who enjoy every single tick, despite the circumstances, since flying is always their escape and enjoyable for them. It gets to the point that they keep playing with the Galra warship, flying back on themselves to fire at the Galra. 

Eventually, they get bored and race off ahead in a slightly different direction, easily losing the Galra who have to manoeuvre. Once Red and Keith are far enough away, they rest on the planet of Olkarion. Olkarion is home to a peaceful race known as the Olkari who are renowned for their extraordinary engineering skills, which are so advanced that it seems like magic. Keith had heard much about them and know they were under the Galra's control but rebels lived in the forest where they landed. 

Red had received a few injuries and needed to rest to be at the best of her abilities. This would allow them to reach the others quicker and handle any Galra they run into. Keith exited Red and looked around. Red put her particle barrier up as Keith left to go explore and try and find the Olkari rebels.

As he walked around, he could feel their eyes on him - but maybe that was the forest since the Olkari had a strong connection to it - but kept walking. Eventually, the Olkari showed up; their weapons at his throat. Keith merely stood still and glanced at each of them. One, who looked slightly different to the others, Keith assumed was their leader, came forward, motioning for the Olkari to lower their weapons which they did so.

"My name is Ryner," the Olkari says.

"Keith."

"Tell me, why are you here?" Ryner asks.

"My ship was damaged by the Galra. I am here to rest and then we shall leave."

"Do you need help fixing your ship?" Ryner asks.

"No. Red can fix herself in time. We shall be gone before you know it," Keith informs them.

"I see... This Red? She is one of the five lions of Voltron, correct?"

"Yes."

"Where are the other four?"

"The blue lion has a paladin and we are working on finding the others. We should find them soon. Me and Red are headed to meet up with them."

"Then there is hope once again."

"Indeed. I promise you Ryner, I shall return with the other lions and paladins and we will liberate your people."

"Thank you kind paladin. We look forward to your return. Lower your weapons!" Ryner orders.

Keith bows to the Olkari who bow back. In his head he hears Red telling him she is ready to leave and head back to her but before he leaves, he stops and turns back to the Olkari.

"Please, don't mention our meeting to the other paladins. I'd prefer this stays between us. I have my reasons."

"Of course paladin. Safe travels."

Keith reaches Red quickly and boards her. As soon as he was sat in the seat, he heard three lions cry out at the looming threat of a battle.

"We're on our way. Full thrust Red. I hope we get there in time," Keith says.

Red growls in reassurance and speeds off in the direction of the other lions as they hear them roar as the battle begins.

It takes a while but they eventually see the lions fighting the Galra. When Keith looks closer, he realises the lions are trapped in a tractor beam and are being pulled onto the ship. Keith and Red push Red's thrusters as far as they can go and hear the lions crying out. Soon after, they can hear the paladins through the comms but don't let that distract them. 

Keith and Red zone everything out but their target and head for it, getting faster...

And faster...

And faster...

Until...

“Keith!”


	7. Effortless Entertainment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All the Paladins and Lions are at the Castle. You know what that means! Training/Bonding Montage!

Most Paladins are asleep, peacefully resting. All of them except Shiro and Keith. Suddenly, the alarms in the Castle of Lions start to blare, rousing every Paladin but Lance, who is sleeping with headphones on that are playing peaceful music. Keith is startled by the alarms, briefly flashing back to the arena, but Red brings him back to reality almost as quickly. The awake Paladins rush towards the Bridge of the Castleship.

"Everybody up! Zarkon's attacking! The Castle's about to be destroyed! Go, go, go! We need Voltron now!" Allura yells through the comms from the Bridge with Coran, "Hurry! We can't survive much longer!"

"You've got to sell it a little bit more," Coran says and Allura hands him the microphone and he starts yelling, "Oh, no! Allura is dead! Aaaah! it's horrible! Her head fell off! Wait! What? Her severed head is trying to speak to me! What is it, Allura's head? What are your final words?"

"Coran..."

"Oh, yes, Princess, I'm listening," Coran continues, unaware of the Paladins in the entranceway.

"It's over."

"Oh, I know! Uaaaagh! If only Voltron had been formed..." Coran trails off as he sees Shiro, Keith, Hunk and Pidge have entered the Bridge.

"—Oh! Time!" Coral cries and clicks a device.

"I guess this isn't an actual attack," Shiro deadpans.

"And it's a good thing it wasn't because it took you... Coran?" Allura asks.

"Seventy-five degrees. Oh, sorry. No, this is a meat thermometer," Coran replies.

"However long it was, it was too long. You must always be ready to do battle with Zarkon. Look at you! Only Shiro is in uniform. Keith, Pidge, Hunk, where are your Bayards? And where is Lance?" Allura scolds and asks just as Lance enters the Bridge, yawning and looking well-rested.

"Good morning, everybody. What's going on?" Lance asks.

"Coran and I have been up for hours getting the Castle back in order. We had to run a test on the alarms, and we decided to test you as well. Guess which one failed," Allura deadpans in irritation.

"Hey!" Hunk cries and yawns, "You got to sleep for 10,000 years, man. Monday night, I was on Earth. Now, I've flown through space, fought some evil alien named Zarkon, eaten goo in some weird Castle. That's a lot to process in, uh... I don't know. What day is today?"

"It's the third quintant of the Spicolian movement. Hump day!" Coran informs them 'helpfully'.

—It's a lot to process," Hunk finishes.

"You must understand the stakes of our mission," Allura answers and brings up a map of the universe from the Castleship's computer and displays the amount of distress beacons before continuing, "Over the last 10,000 years, the Castle picked up distress beacons from the following locations. So, we have to assume that Zarkon has conquered almost the entire known universe," she moves the map to the Milky Way where it appears barely out of Zarkon's reach and continues, "Earth is here. An attack on your planet is inevitable."

"Oh no..." Hunk mutters.

"Exactly. Our mission is to free all those planets. Coran and I are getting the Castle ready to leave Arus. During that time, you have to learn to form Voltron, so we can begin fighting Zarkon," Allura continues.

"The Princess is right. Let's get to our Lions and start training," Shiro agrees.

"Wait. But I want to talk to the prisoners we rescued from the Galra ship," Pidge complains and Keith looks at her in understanding and slight confusion.

"Ah, negative, Number Five. I have you ranked by height, okay? The prisoners need to remain in the cryo-replenishers until tomorrow," Coran informs them.

"That's right. Now, get to your Lions," Allura orders and the Paladins head to their Lions, donning their armor before traveling by zip-line.

However, Hunk's zip line stops, causing him to cry out, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. What's going on? What's going...?" and fall from his own weight and the zip-line continues without him so Hunk starts to slide down the shaft slowly, "Aw, come on. You've got to be kidding me."

Meanwhile, the rest of the Paladins reach their Speeders that take them to their Lions but Hunk is obviously late to arrive and drops from the zip-line hole, as his speeder takes off without him. He groans in frustration.

Outside the Castle of Lions, the other Paladins wait for Hunk.

"... Should someone go in after him?" Lance finally asks as the Yellow Lion finally arrives.

"Hey, sorry, everybody. Seriously, though, can't they park these things, like, a little closer to the Bridge?" Hunk questions.

"All right, guys. Let's just fly in tight formation until we're totally in sync," Shiro says.

Allura appears on Shiro's screen and begins to advise them, "Feel the bond with your Lions and your fellow pilots until five become one unit and you form Voltron!"

The Lions take off, flying in sync and the Paladins keep yelling as they fly across the sky, "Yeah! ... Yeah! ... Yeah!" becoming less enthusiastic as time goes on, "... Yay..."

"Whoo... Am I the only one who's still pretending to be excited?" Hunk tries.

"Clearly, this isn't working. Let's set down for a little bit," Shiro says and Keith hears a suggestion from Red to get the ball rolling (since they weren't making any progress).

"Maybe we should be building Voltron from the ground up," Keith offers in hopes they get closer to working in a team as a result.

"What do you mean?" Shiro asks.

"I mean, let's try literally building Voltron, like, stacking on top of each other," Keith replies.

"Like a cheerleader pyramid?" Lance asks.

"You got a better idea?" Pidge retorts whilst Keith just frowns in confusion.

"It's worth a try," Shiro says and the Paladins stack their Lions on top of each other, but with the Yellow Lion is at the top, "Hunk, what are you doing?"

"What do you mean?" Hunk asks.

"You're supposed to be the leg, over there," Shiro says.

"What? No. No, no, no. I'm pretty sure that when we did it last time, I was the head. Right?" Hunk replies.

"You yelled, 'I'm a leg!'" Lance deadpans.

"Yeah, I was yelling a lot of things," Hunk retorts.

"Shiro's the head," Keith says without emotion.

"All the time?"

"Let's just try it my way for now," Shiro offers.

"Okay, but next time I call head," Hunk replies and the Paladins stack the Lions properly, Shiro carefully hovering the Black Lion above the others until it stands on top of them.

"Okay. Arms and legs... and I'll form the head. Feel the bonds with your Lions. Now, channel your energy into forming Voltron. Focus... Focus..."

The Paladins wait...

But...

Nothing happens...

"Is everyone bonding and focusing?" Shiro asks irritated from their lack of progress.

"Why was this so much easier before?" Lance moans.

Shiro sighs and says, "Let's take a break."

Allura appears on everyone's screen from the Command Room and offers her opinion, "Sorry to interrupt, but I may be able to help. Yesterday, you weren't able to form Voltron until you were in the heat of battle."

"Yeah," Pidge agrees.

"I'm listening," Lance replies.

"You're right," Shiro realises.

"Yeah, I guess," Keith reluctantly says.

"Perfect. Because I need to run a diagnostic test on all of the Castle's defenses. This should help!" Allura replies with a smile in her voice as the Castle of Lions fires blasts from its particle barrier, bombarding the Lions, causing the Paladins to scream and flee.

"Okay, go, go!" Lance screams.

"Allura, what are you doing?!" Keith yells as Red cries out in panic and anger at the 'Spoilt Princess that dares to endanger HER cub'.

Allura only smiles at Keith from his screen while he is running from explosions and says enthusiastically, "Running a diagnostic test on the Castle defenses and inspiring you! I believe in you, Paladins! Let fear be your guide! Form Voltron!"

"Oh, forget this! I'm heading back to the Castle!" Lance replies and pilots the Blue Lion towards the Castleship, dodging the attacks, but is thrown back by the particle barrier. 

Hunk meanwhile dodges the bombardment all the while screaming, "Please stop! Please! Have mercy on us!"

Allura appears on Hunk's screen and replies, "You think Zarkon is going to have mercy on you? He's probably on his way right now to destroy us all!"

Allura presses a button on the Castleship's computer screen and walks away as the computer says, "Auto-lock-on engaged," and The Castle of Lions auto-fires at the panicking Paladins.  
At the Galra Empire's Central Command, the Galra commander who captured Shiro and chased the Blue Lion kneels before Zarkon.

"You have returned early. Did you complete your mission?" Zarkon asks.

"Sir, the moon's crust became unstable. Staying any longer would have cost half my crew," the Galra Commander replies.

"Hmm, perhaps, but the half that survived would have been stronger. Weakness is an infection. Better to cut it off than let it spread," Zarkon responds and Galra sentries grab the terrified Galra Commander and drag him away.

Zarkon asks without turning, "What have you and your Druids come up with to capture Voltron?"

"I have been working on perfecting something. Something that will strike fear into the hearts of any that stand against it. Voltron may have surprised Sendak, but he will not be able to overcome my creation," Haggar responds.

Meanwhile, the Paladins, except Shiro, lay exhausted on the couches of the Castle Lounge. Allura and Coran enter.

"Are we at full power on condenser number five yet?" Allura asks.

"No, still just 84 percent," Coran replies.

Allura looks happy to see the Paladins and cries, "You did it! You formed Voltron!"

"No. The shooting stopped and the particle barrier shut down, so we just flew in," Keith deadpans.

"What?" Allura cries.

"Oh, right. Uh, sorry, Princess. I had to turn off the Castle defenses to test the fire suppressors," Coran admits.

Shiro enters and asks, "What are you guys doing in here? We're not taking a break."

"Shiro's right. You should be training," Allura scolds.

"We've been training. When are we going back to Earth?" Hunk moans.

"I'm not going back until I find my family," Pidge scowls.

"Guys, there won't be an Earth if we don't figure out how to fight Zarkon," Shiro reasons.

"How are we going to fight? We can't even figure out how to form Voltron," Lance cries.

"Well, I'm not surprised. You know, the original Paladins fought hundreds of battles together, side-by-side. They were like a pack of Yalmors linked at the ears," Coran babbles and Keith giggles a bit at the Yalmors bit.

"Wow. Yeah, that's definitely not us," Lance sighs.

"During the last attack, your survival instincts forced you to work as a team, but that will only get you so far. You'll have to become a real team to have any chance of forming Voltron and then beating Zarkon next time. You should try working out on the Training Deck," Coran advises.

"There's a Training Deck?" Hunk asks.

Meanwhile

At the Galra Empire's Central Command, Haggar enters a dark cell where a strange creature is held.

"I think I have the opportunity you've been waiting for. How would you like to get your revenge against the Champion and the kit?" Haggar asks.

The creature growls and smiles.

Meanwhile

The Training Deck illuminates.

Coran clears his throat to check his microphone and says, "Two, two, one, two. Okay, listen up, guys. The Paladin code demands that you put your team members' safety above your own. A swarm of drones is about to attack. It's up to each of you to do everything you can to protect the other members of your team."

Altean drones appear. Keith and Pidge form shields.

"Wait, wait, wait. What's going on—Whoa!" Hunk cries and forms his shield, "Did you guys get one of these?"

Shiro and Lance form shields and Shiro warns, "Get ready."

The Altean drones fire lasers. Hunk dodges and Pidge is struck as a result, dropping into a hole that opens up underfoot.

"Protect your teammates or no one will be there to protect you!" Coran advises.

Hunk is struck and drops into the floor. Shiro, Keith and Lance huddle back-to-back to defend themselves.

"Time to increase intensity," Coran says and the drone fire becomes rapid.

"You keeping up over there, Keith?" Lance asks mockingly.

"Just concentrate on keeping me safe," Keith growls, listening to Red's advice not to start a fight.

Lance scoffs, "Me? I own this drill. You're the one who needs to concentrate."

The drones fire at their heads. Shiro and Keith dodge, but Lance is distracted and does not. He lifts his foot to avoid being shot, and Keith is shot instead, disappearing into the floor. Lance tries to defend Shiro but is struck himself, so Shiro ends up struck. Both fall through the holes in the floor. Coran facepalms but continues to the next test: an invisible maze. Lance stands inside the maze.

"To form Voltron, you must trust in each other. This ancient Paladin maze will teach you that trust. Your teammate can see the walls, but you cannot. So, listen carefully. If you touch the walls, you'll get a slight shock," Coran informs them.

"Wait. Who's guiding me through?" Lance asks

Keith speaks through Lance's helmet using a microphone and says, "Take two steps forward."

"Oh, no. Not Keith. Why does he get to be the man on the mic?" Lance cries.

"Now, just sit tight. You'll get your turn," Coran reprimands.

"Like I said, take two steps forward, turn right, and take three steps that direction," Keith orders.

Lance only turns right and hits a wall, getting shocked and cries, "You did that on purpose!"

"You're not listening."

"You said, 'Turn right.'"

"But, before that, I said, 'Take two steps forward.'"

"Two steps—"

Lance steps in the wrong direction and gets shocked again.

"We're switching places right now!" Lance yells.

The team is flying their Lions through the sky for the next test. 

Coran speaks to them from the Castleship's Bridge, "You'll never be able to form Voltron unless each of you has a strong bond with his Lion."

"No problem. Me and Blue are best buds for life, for real," Lance gloats.

"Perfect! Then you won't have any issues with this exercise. Everyone, put your Lions into a nose dive! This is an expert-level drill that you really shouldn't attempt until you've been flying for years, but, uh, we're in a bit of a rush, so here we go," Coran yells enthusiastically, "Activating training helmets!"

Dark visors appear over each Paladin's helmet. 

Lance screams, "Coran, what's happening?! I can't see!"

"You must learn to see through your Lions' eyes. The goal is to pull up right before you crash into the ground. Feel what the Lion feels!" Coran encourages.

"Mine feels scared!" Hunk panics and pulls out of the dive right away.

"You still going, Keith?" Lance cries.

"You know it. You?" Keith replies.

"Going? I'm speeding up!" Lance replies and speeds up his dive.

"Oh, yeah? That's a bad idea," Keith advises, listening to Red and being able to see through her eyes.

"Must be getting close," Lance mutters.

"Must be," Keith replies, not wanting to give anything away in hopes Lance will be able to pass the test.

"You getting scared?" Lance taunts.

"I'M NOT SCARED!" Keith yells, memories running through his head, causing him to lose his temper and speed ahead.

Lance crashes into the ground with his Lions half-buried and Keith pulls up just in time, listening to Red and seeing through her eyes, calming down and avoiding crashing. The Blue Lion rolls away.

"Phew," Keith sighs, wiping away his sweat.

"... I win," Lance mutters and Keith rolls his eyes with a small smile present on his face.

Meanwhile, Shiro and Pidge are still in a nose-dive.

"What was that noise? Did they crash?" Pidge panics and pulls out of the dive, but hits a cliff. 

Shiro remains in a dive with his eyes closed and is able to connect with the Black Lion seeing what it sees. He pulls out of the dive last-second and flies through several rocky areas without using his own eyes and says, "I think I'm getting this."

"Excellent, Keith, Shiro!" Coran praises.

The Paladins sit in a circle in the Training Deck with special headsets on as Coran speaks to them over the intercom, "Now, the most important part of Paladin training is being able to meld your minds and focus on one thing: Voltron. Everything else has to fade away. This technique will be essential every time you form Voltron."

A screen depicting the thoughts of the Paladins appears before each one. Keith thinks of his forgotten childhood home, the desert shack. Lance thinks of his family. Hunk thinks of food. Pidge thinks of the photograph Hunk found on Earth of a boy and a girl that both resemble Pidge, but the image is obscured. Shiro thinks of the Kerberos Mission launch.

"So, relax and open your mind. No walls, no secrets between Paladins. Come on, everyone, clear everything. Now, focus on forming your Lion," Coran instructs.

The Paladins, except Pidge, form their images into their respective Lions and move them to form Voltron.

"Bring your Lions together a-and form Voltron. Keep your minds open, work together. Good! Keep focusing! Only one to go!" Coran encourages.

The Green Lion has not appeared. Pidge's mental image remains static-filled but Keith notices, always paying attention to his surroundings (a 'skill' he picked up in the arena so he was never surprised in order to survive).

"Pidge, stop thinking of your girlfriend!" Keith scolds, not wanting to out Pidge and reveal the truth; he's not stupid and he found it obvious.

Pidge's mental image disappears and yells, "I wasn't! Hunk was rooting around in my head!"

"I-I thought we were open. You can look in my head hole," Hunk defends.

"Everyone has to be able to look in everyone's head holes! Clear your minds!" Coran scolds.

The Paladins try again. This time, Pidge is able to manifest the Green Lion. The mental Lions move together.

"Good! Almost there," Coran encourages.

The mental Lions begin forming Voltron.

"Now, form Voltron. Yes!" Coran almost screams in excitement.

The Green Lion attaches to the mental Voltron, but becomes the same static-filled image as before.

"Pidge!" Lance cries in frustration.

Pidge snaps in frustration and throws the headset off, yelling out, "I'm done with this! Look, I don't like everyone grubbing around in my head!"

"Oh, come on, Pidge, we're starting to get the hang of this," Shiro tries to comfort.

"I'm just... I'm just tired, okay?" Pidge mutters.

"Okay. Let's take a break," Shiro resigns.

Coran hands all the Paladins packs of fluid to drink as they sit and relax, saying, "You have been working hard. Maybe it's time to relax a little."

Allura stomps over, "What are you doing lying around? You're supposed to be training!"

"Just resting a bit. Y-You know, you can't push too hard," Coran replies.

"What do you mean, 'can't push too hard'? Get up, you lazy lumps! It's time you faced the Gladiator!" Allura orders.

The Paladins stand with their Bayards formed in the Training Deck as Coran says, "In order to defeat the Gladiator, five paladins must fight as one."

The Gladiator robot drops from the ceiling wielding a polearm staff.

"Hmm? Whoa!" Hunk panics and is knocked out of commission. 

Pidge fights the Gladiator robot but is also knocked out. Lance meets the same fate, being tossed towards Keith, who dodges from experience and instinct, leaving Lance sprawled on the floor. The Gladiator rushes Shiro, triggering a memory. Shiro freezes. Keith realises what is happening and launches himself from the floor to block the Gladiator's attack on Shiro, like when they were back in the arena.

"Shiro, are you okay?" Keith asks, trying to get Shiro to respond but he doesn't. 

The Gladiator knocks Keith into Shiro, whilst Keith worries for Shiro, sending them both to the floor. The fight ends. 

Allura approaches and scolds, "That combat simulator was set at a level fit for an Altean child! You're not even close to working as a team, let alone ready to face Zarkon!"

The Paladins sit in the dining hall before a table of food goo and other strange food. 

Coran stands nearby and greets, "Ahoy, young Paladins! I've whipped up a big batch of focusing food. After this meal, you'll be forming Voltron six times a movement and twice on the astral conflux!"

"Smells great, Coran. Thanks," Shiro thanks him too soon since Coran pulls out a remote and presses a button, making the Paladins handcuffed together on each arm.

"Hold the phone!" Lance yells.

"I saw a lot of solid individual performances today, but you're still struggling to work as a team. So, welcome to the final bonding exercise of the day," Coran smiles.

Hunk tries to free himself from Lance, then tries to free himself from Shiro, but both attempts fail, making him suggest, "Coran, I want you to think about what you're doing."

"Oh, this one's a classic. You get to feed each other, like a pack of Yalmors!" Coran ignores enthusiastically.

Meanwhile

At the Galra Empire's Central Command, Haggar turns the monster into the Galactic Gladiator Robeast. 

Meanwhile

At the Castle of Lions, Allura has joined the Paladins for dinner. The Paladins struggle to eat. 

Lance flings Hunk's food goo on accident, causing Hunk to yell, "Ow!"

"Sorry."

Hunk tries to eat again but Lance's fingers end up Hunk's nose and mouth. 

Lance pulls away and moans out, 'Ew! Ugh...", but Lance is pulled back over by Hunk, causing him to pull Keith's hand into Lance's plate of goo, who complains, "Oh, nice. You defiled my food goo!"

"It's not my fault! This is ridiculous. Wasting food like this," Keith defends, mumbling the last bit, unable to remember having a decent meal like this before in his lifetime.

No one notices Keith's last comment, except Pidge, Coran and Shiro, but they put it to the side as Allura growls in frustration, "Do Earthlings ever stop complaining?"

"Can't you just give us a break? Everyone's been working really hard today," Shiro pleads, glancing at Keith's thin figure out of the corner of his eye, desperate to get him some good food.

"Yeah! We're not some prisoners for you to toy with, like... like..." Keith protests, trailing off at the end, remembering that this is better than the Galra.

"Like a bunch of toy prisoners!" Lance adds.

"Yes! Thank you, Lance!" Keith covers up.

"—You do not yell at the Princess!" Coran raises his voice.

"Oh, the Princess of what? We're the only ones out here and she's no Princess of ours!" Pidge replies and Keith's eyes only widen slightly but he says nothing.

Allura flings a spoonful of goo at Pidge. Pidge glares at her but Keith glares playfully at her, figuring out her plan, listening to Red tell him this will get them to work together as a team.

"Go loose, Pidge!" Keith smirks evilly and flings a bowl full of goo at Allura but Coran blocks the attack and tosses a huge scoop of goo all over the Paladins.

"Oh, it's on now," Hunk growls.

Everyone throws goo at each other until they begin having fun and laughing. The food/goop fight leaves Allura exhausted in her chair. The Paladins laugh. Keith smiles but still has his reserves about wasting food, despite many reassurances from the lions.

"Enough! Do you see what you're doing?!" Allura says angrily.

The Paladins are silent and apprehensive but Allura smiles at them, "You're finally working together as one!"

"Hey, she's right!" Keith grins, knowing the plan worked, able to ignore the fact food was wasted finally.

"I actually don't hate you right now," Lance notices.

"You guys thinking what I'm thinking?" Hunk wonders aloud.

"Let's go form Voltron!" Shiro cheers.

"Yeah!" The Paladins all yell in agreement

"Actually, I was thinking dessert. But, yeah! Let's do it!" Hunk replies and cheers but ends up making the Paladins fall over as they are still handcuffed.

"Actually, Hunk thank you for reminding me. Keith! Eat. Now," Shiro says sternly.

Everyone shares a look except Shiro, who is glaring at Keith, and Keith, who refuses to look at anyone, but Allura presses the button to remove the handcuffs and Coran fetches some food. Keith sits. The food is placed in front of him and he looks at Shiro.

"Eat," Shiro repeats.

As soon as Shiro finishes, Keith starts to devour the food so that it is gone in less than five seconds. Everyone stares in shock except for Shiro, who smiles. Keith looks up and smiles slightly. Coran is the first to snap out of his stupor and brings Keith more food. This repeats for the next seven plates until Keith is satisfied and the Paladins leave and all successfully make it to their Lions, choosing to wait to question this development later.

Shiro takes the controls of the Black Lion, asking, "Everyone ready to do this?"

Pidge takes control of the Green Lion, "Roger that!"

Lance takes control of the Blue Lion, "It's on!"

Keith smiles at Red, who is pleased at him eating his fill and thankful to Shiro as a result, and takes control of the Red Lion, "Yes, sir!"

Hunk takes control of the Yellow Lion, "I was born ready!"

"Then let's go!" Shiro grins.

"Yeah!" The Paladins cry out.

The Lions form Voltron. Allura and Coran stand outside the Castle of Lions.

"I told you I could get them to do it. They just needed a common enemy."

"It's true. Like the old proverb says, 'A man can be driven to do anything, if a beautiful woman is just really, really mean to him,'" Coran replies but Allura looks unamused. 

In the Castle Lounge, the Paladins recount their success.

"Man, that was cool! I'm so charged up, I don't know if I'm going to be able to sleep tonight," Lance gloats.

"Not me. When my head hits the pillow, I'm going to be lights out," Keith replies, actually looking forward to a good nights sleep for once, since he feels safe enough to fully fall asleep in the Castleship.

"I just want you to know that I realized when we were in Voltron, we're brothers, man. You know? Like, we're totally connected. No secrets, no barriers, no nothing. Brothers all the way. I love you guys," Hunk hugs them but lets go when he notices Keith flinch.

"G-forces mess with your head a little bit?" Keith smiles to try and reassure Hunk it isn't his fault.

"Yeah, maybe a little. I-I don't know. It's been a tough few days," Hunk replies.

"Say Keith?" Lance asks hesitantly.

"Yeah?"

"Why did you eat so much so fast? It was like you were afraid it would disappear or something."

Keith looks away. Everyone gives him sympathetic looks.

"How bad?" Pidge breaks the silence.

"What?"

"How bad was it? You knew Shiro but we've never seen you before or even heard of you. With how you were, you don't eat much or, at the very least, well. How bad was growing up for you?" Pidge deducts, knowing she is close from Keith's multiple flinches.

"... My mother crash landed on Earth. My father helped her and they fell in love. I was born but my father was killed. My mother took me with her but the Galra caught us. I spent my childhood - no, my entire life, - as a prisoner of the Galra. My mother fought in the Gladiator arena but died. I was left to survive by myself. The other 'gladiators' were there for me but it wasn't great. I was the 'Champion' until... Shiro," his and Shiro's eyes meet and Shiro comes closer slowly, lowering his hand onto Keith's shoulder, crouching down and smiling reassuringly.

Keith squeezes the hand with his own, gets up and leaves, leaving the other Paladins in silence, considering what they were told. Eventually, the Paladins head to bed, sans Pidge. Shiro stops.

"Going to bed, Pidge?"

"In a minute."

"Good work today. We're really coming together."

Shiro leaves. Pidge frowns and looks at the photograph that appeared during the mental training. 

Meanwhile

At the Galra Empire's Central Command, Zarkon watches the Galactic Gladiator prepare to be launched.

"This beast will allow us to destroy the Paladins. And then, Voltron will be ours."

The Robeast is launched into space, hurling towards Arus.


	8. Enemy Encounter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Train all you like, it isn’t the same as the real thing.

At the Galra Empire's Central Command, Zarkon absorbs Quintessence as Haggar watches.

"Sire, the beast is almost to Arus," Haggar informs him.

"This Quintessence gives me so much power, I could fight the Paladins myself," Zarkon replies.

"There is no need. My creature will destroy them and capture the Voltron Lions for you. Then, the most powerful weapon in the universe will be ours," Haggar replies.

The Galactic Gladiator heads towards Arus.

Meanwhile

The Paladins enter the dinning hall of the Castle of Lions.

"Great job training today, guys. We're really getting the hang of Voltron," Shiro praises.

"Seriously, how far do you think my Lion kicked that broken alien ship? Must have been like a mile!" Lance gloats.

"Yeah, that'll come in handy when the Galra challenges Voltron to a soccer match," Keith deadpans, a ghost of a smile adorning his face, affectionately.

"Hey, I did something cool and you can't handle it. I get it," Lance mocks, causing Keith to roll his eyes.

"Your kick ruined our balance. We fell." 

"Well that falling part was Hunk's fault." 

"Hey!" 

"All right, save your energy for fighting Zarkon," Shiro says, shaking his head fondly.

The Paladins sit at the table. Keith listens to Red order him to eat whatever is out in front of him.

Coran enters and greets them, "Hello, guys! How was the Voltron workout?" 

"We're getting there. Are you and Allura almost done fixing the Castle so we can leave this planet? I feel like we're sitting ducks here on Arus," Shiro informs him.

"Just about. In the meantime, to get your minds off those duck seats you're worried about, I made you guys an authentic ancient Paladin lunch!" 

Coran reveals an abomination he cooked up. Everyone is disgusted except Keith. Keith uses his spoon to eat it.

"Eww..." everyone but Coran(who looks proud) and Keith says.

"What? It's food and it's good," Keith defends.

Everyone shares a look and encourage him to eat it if he likes it.

"Coran, you just got me hooked on that goo and now you're switching it up?" Hunk asks.

"This is packed with nutrients, Coran says as he and Hunk sniff the strange food.

"Oh, it smells disgusting!" 

"I know! That's how you know it's healthy!" 

Hunk has an alien plant in hand and begins to teach, "Coran, we're on a planet now with fresh herbs, spices, and... whatever this thing is. A tuber? Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to head back to the kitchen and spice things up." 

Hunk leaves. Lance and Keith sit at the other end of the table to wait (Keith already finished).

"Where's Pidge?" Shiro asks

Coran eats the strange food and speaks with his mouth full, "—He's probably checking on those... prisoners we rescued from Zarkon. They'll all be waking soon in the infirmary." 

Shiro stands to leave and Coran offers him a spork full of yellow nastiness, "Open the hatch. Food Lion coming in!" Coran says, making jet sounds.

"No. Just... no," Shiro says and leaves.

"You don't know what you're missing!" Coran calls after him.

Shiro enters the Sleep Chamber where Pidge is impatiently waiting, tapping a leg on the floor, and speaks, You're as anxious as me." 

"These aliens we saved know something about my family. They have to!" 

"I hope so." 

"They recognized you, didn't they? They called you "Champion." What does that even mean?" 

"I don't know. Keith does. I can't remember very much from that time, except Keith. But the way those guys looked at me when we freed them... I don't know if I want to find out." 

The pod containing the Xi, who recognized Shiro, opens.

In the dining hall, Hunk brings Keith and Lance visibly appealing and tastier food. Keith has noticeably more food on his plate. The two Paladins wolf the food down while Coran watches, trying not to be insulted. 

Allura enters and says, enthusiastically, "They like the Paladin lunch!" 

Coran is offended and mutters, "I don't want to talk about it." 

"I just got the final nebulon booster working. We should be able to leave Planet Arus tomorrow and take the fight to Zarkon." 

Suddenly, the Castleship alarms blare. Keith and Lance stop eating (Keith, however, made sure to have finished completely under Red's orders). Allura brings up a screen showing a strange creature approaching the Castle.

"What is that?" Keith asks, curious about the new alien he had never seen before and slightly nervous.

"I don't know what it is. Maybe it's a local Arusian. He's approaching the Castle." 

The creature yells as he comes closer and hides behind rocks.

"Aw!" Hunk coos.

"Doesn't look too dangerous," Lance says.

"You never know," Keith growls, remembering a particularly nasty opponent and what others thought about him, summoning his Bayard.

"No. Alteans believe in peace first. Let's go welcome them," Allura decides, leaving with Coran.

"That's adorable," Hunk coos again.

"Hey, maybe we can knit him a little sweater!" Lance yells excitedly.

"I'm not taking any chances," Keith says, flinching at what Lance and Hunk had said, flashbacks invading his mind.

Lance, Hunk, and Keith follow Allura and Coran outside. The creature flees and hides as everyone exits the Castle. They approach where he is hiding.

"Greetings. We know you're there. No harm will come to you," Allura greets.

The creature jumps out and brandishes his sword, causing Hunk to coo again, "Aw!" 

Keith stands between the creature and Allura with his Bayard ready, warning, "Wait! He could be dangerous. Drop your weapon!" 

"No one takes Klaizap's weapon!" Klaizap yells.

"Keith, put that away! Please, kind sir, accept my most humble apologies," Allura reprimands, causing Keith to relent. 

Klaizap calms down, bowing, "I am Klaizap, bravest of our warriors. Our village is over Gazrel Hill. I come seeking answers as to why the Lion Goddess is angered with her followers." 

"Followers?" Coran inquires.

"Lion Goddess?" Hunk wonders.

"The one the ancients spoke of," Klaizap informs them and gestures to a carving of a Lion-headed deity being worshiped by Arusians.

"What makes you think she's angered?" Allura questions.

"Destruction is everywhere. In the past few suns, fire has rained from the heavens and a giant has danced in the sky." 

Hunk whispers to Lance, "I think he's talking about Voltron." 

"Yeah, I got that." 

"You have not angered the Lion Goddess," Allura assures him.

"How can you be certain?" 

"Because I am Allura and this is my Castle." 

"Huh?! Lion Goddess!" Klaizap gasps and bows.

"Please, bravest warrior, take us to your village so that we may meet our neighbors," Allura requests.

"What about our mission to get off this planet and fight Zarkon?" Keith asks, his nerves growing.

"Part of the Paladins' mission is to spread peace and diplomacy. Arus has been our host for 10,000 years. These people deserve our thanks." 

Meanwhile

Shiro and Pidge tend to the awakened prisoners in the Castle's Sleep Chamber.

"So, how long were you held captive by Zarkon?" Pidge asks.

"Some for years. Decades, maybe. It's hard to tell. Time becomes a blur." 

"Then you must have been there when my dad and brother arrived. Sam and Matt Holt?" 

"I never knew their names, but I certainly remember the other two Earthlings that arrived with Champion." 

""Champion." Why do you keep calling me that?" Shiro asks.

"You really don't remember? Unbelievable! You were a legendary gladiator, undefeated in the ring. You defeated an infamous Galra gladiator known as Myzax. That was the day you earned the name "Champion." I was there, as was the young Earthling." 

The XI recounts his memories of the Arena. Shiro and a boy, who resembles Pidge and can be assumed to be Matt, were lined up with other prisoners ready to fight Myzax.

"We were all prisoners, forced to fight for the entertainment of Zarkon. That day, we were set to fight Myzax, a vile beast many thought could never be defeated. Slaughter awaited us all. This 'Matt' was the first of us sent to fight. But fate had other plans." 

_A Galra Sentry offered Matt a blade, which Shiro steals and attacks Matt with._

"You were so thirsty for blood, you injured your fellow Earthling." 

In the present, Pidge is enraged at Shiro, "You attacked my brother? Why?!" 

"No... it can't be true." 

"I was there. We all were." 

"After my brother was injured, where was he taken?" 

"I know not." 

"I don't believe it. There's got to be more to the story. I-I couldn't have hurt my friend. Wait. That ship we were held captive on crash-landed on this planet. They'll have logs of prisoners, some... information." 

"I'm coming with you." 

Meanwhile

"Oh, Lion Goddess, I, King of the Arusians, formally beg your forgiveness. Please have mercy on us and accept our traditional Dance of Apology as atonement for our wrongdoings." 

The Arusian King claps to summon another Arusian to dance.

"Commence Dance of Apology! Hoorah!" 

The Arusian dances to music.

"Please, there's no need for this," Allura tries.

"Moontow, halt!" 

Moontow freezes on one foot.

"The Goddess has refused the apology. Start the sacrificial fire. We must throw ourselves in," the King orders and the Arusians light an enormous pyre.

"No! No sacrifices!" Allura yells.

The Arusians are about to burn one of their own.

"So, we may proceed with the dance?" asks the King.

Allura smiles, "That's a better alternative." 

Moontow dances and the Arusians bow to Allura, who blushes, "Oh, my! Please, please, rise. Thank you for that, but I am not a great being worthy of your worship. I accidentally put you all in danger. It is I who should be apologizing to you. I am Princess Allura and these are the Voltron Paladins. Although we originally came from different worlds... and have very, very, very different traditions, we wish to live alongside you as friends." 

"But the mighty robotic angel... has it not come to destroy us because of our immoral ways?" the King asks.

"Voltron? No. In fact, that mighty robot is here to protect you. Let it be known that Voltron will protect every innocent being throughout the universe!" Allura declares.

The Arusians cheer and celebrate by hugging the team. 

Keith tries to leave but an Arusian clings to him, making him tense and the others turn to him to intervene, but he shakes his head slightly and pats the Arusian's head, "I don't... usually hug strangers, but, uh... Man, you are cuddly." 

The Arusian speaks in a contrastingly deep voice, "Thank you." 

This causes Keith's eyes to widen in shock, but smile slightly.

Shiro and Pidge investigate Sendak's fallen warship. Shiro rubs his head, memories of Keith suddenly bombarding his mind.

"This looks like the master control board, but there's no power," Pidge observes.

"All you need is power?" Shiro asks.

"Yeah, but one that's compatible with Galra tech." 

Pidge scratches their chin in thought, whilst Shiro looks at his arm and it, powering up the computer by touching it.

"Whoa... I can't believe you got this to work," Pidge exclaims and starts downloading the data, "My dad's and Matt's whereabouts must be logged in here somewhere. Once I download this information, I'll find some way to decode it back at the Castle." 

Shiro hears a rumbling and turns to look out the ship, whereas Pidge is to distracted to realise, "Wha—?" the ship carrying the monster (the Galactic Gladiator) appears in the sky, "Oh, no." 

"What is it?" 

"Something just entered the atmosphere. I'm not exactly sure what it is, but it's big, it's Galra, and it's coming right for us. We gotta go!" Shiro panics slightly and tries to leave, lifting his hand.

Pidge slams it down, "Shiro, don't. Move. I'm only 15 percent done. I'm not going anywhere." 

Shiro eyes the incoming spacecraft, his panic slowly growing, for him and Pidge, and cannot wait for the download to finish, "Pidge, I'm sorry!" 

"No!" 

Shiro grabs Pidge, who resists, and uses his jetpack to escape, yelling for help, "Team, come in! We need backup!" 

Meanwhile, Allura is with Keith and the Arusians when Shiro's voice relays over her communication earrings.

"Hello?" 

"Shiro?" Allura asks.

"Where is everyone?" 

"What's going on?" Keith asks, panicking slightly at both Shiro and Red's distress.

The incoming spacecraft causes rumbling across the surface of Arus. Keith and Allura finally see the threat.

"Oh, no. We gotta get to our Lions!" Keith yells, panic rising.

The Arusians start running to hide.

"Everyone get inside and stay down!" Allura orders.

"I'm on it!" Hunk replies, running away.

"Huh?" Allura questions, confused.

Hunk tries to flee with the Arusians, but Keith grabs him by the collar as he runs past and drags him back towards the Lions.

"Not you!" Keith growls.

Shiro and Pidge are still by the fallen warship.

"No! Shiro, let me go! My father!" 

"Huh?" Shiro question when he sees the Galra spacecraft is on a collision course with the warship, "Run!" 

Shiro and Pidge use their jetpacks to escape the collision.The Green Lion and Black Lion suddenly appear to protect them from the blast. The two Lions move away to reveal their Paladins are safe.

"Our Lions just saved us," Shiro realises.

"I didn't know they could do that. Huh? Um... Shiro?!" Pidge points to the Galra spacecraft.

The Galactic Gladiator starts up and notices Shiro who orders, "Get in your Lion!" 

The Paladins enter their Lions and dodge the Galactic Gladiator's attacks. The Robeast can control an energy orb remotely and the Green Lion's mouth cannon is not powerful enough to stop it, causing the Green Lion to be hit and falls to the surface. The Galactic Gladiator charges at the fallen Lion. Shiro tries to stop it but fails. The other Lions arrive and fire at the Robeast.

"Lay down some covering fire so they can get out of there!" Keith orders and fires the Red Lion's mouth cannon, using his anger at seeing his new family like that.

"I'm on it!" Lance yells and fires the Blue Lion's tail cannon. 

The Galactic Gladiator is stalled under the fire.

"Check this out! Battle-Lion head-butt!" Hunk shows off and charges the Yellow Lion at the Robeast and knocks it forward.

"You guys okay down there?" Keith asks, worried.

"Still alive for now," Shiro replies, relieved, hoping to reassure Keith.

Shiro, Hunk and Pidge group with the other Lions.

"Are the Galra behind this?" Hunk questions.

"I think so, but I've never seen anything like it," Shiro answers.

"The Witch's crooked experiments," Keith whispers, only loud enough for Red to hear.

"So, what's the plan? Shoot at it with everything we've got? Take out its weapon? Call it names?" Lance offers solutions.

"If we want to take this monster down, there's only one way to do it. Form Voltron!" Shiro orders and the team forms Voltron, "Remember, we are one unit, fighting with one goal." 

The Galactic Gladiator and Voltron fight, seemingly at equal strength until Voltron is hit by the Robeast's energy orb, "Huh?!" Panicked, Voltron narrowly dodges the attacks.

"I thought Voltron was the most powerful weapon in the universe!" Keith yells, panicky rising again.

"Yeah, so how is this monster kicking our butts?" Hunk asks, worried.

Distracted by the orb, Voltron is hit by the Galactic Gladiator and thrown near the Arusian village.

"Oh, no! The village! We have to protect those people!" Shiro realises.

The Galactic Gladiator fires an energy orb. Voltron takes the hit, narrowly misses landing on the village, and flies off to lure the Robeast away from the village. The Galactic Gladiator follows Voltron.

"That was close!" Shiro sighs in relief.

"We got him away from the Arusians, but we can't take him down!" Pidge observes.

"I got it! I'm going to power-kick that orb thing!" Lance exclaims.

"No! The last time you did a kick, we fell!" Keith yells, worried for them.

"Stop living in the past!" Lance says and has Voltron charge at the Robeast and perform a flying kick at an energy orb. 

...

The kick misses the orb.

"Oh, no!" Lance screams, causing everyone to face palm as the orb hits Voltron out of the air.

"Pidge, fire lasers now!" Shiro orders.

"Got it! Fire!" Pidge obeys but summons Voltron's shield instead, "Oops! Ah! Uh..!" Pidge scrambles to dismiss the shield, "No! Lasers! Lasers!" 

The Galactic Gladiator hits Voltron twice.

"Every time we focus on that orb, we're blindsided by the monster, and every time we focus on the monster, the orb hits us!" Hunk observes aloud.

"Then what do we do?" Lance panics.

"Orb!" Hunk points out as an energy orb blindsides Voltron, knocking them into a cliff.

"Shiro, we gotta move! Shiro, are you there? Shiro!" Keith yells, panicking, recognising this attack pattern.

Shiro recalls memories and recognizes the Robeast as Myzax.

"That sound... I recognize this monster from my time in Zarkon's prison. I know how to beat him!" Shiro yells and Keith relaxes, even when the Galactic Gladiator strikes but Shiro recognizes the attack and easily dodges with Voltron, "Listen, there's a loud sound when the orb returns to the base of the weapon, and every third time, that orb needs to charge up. That's this monster's weakest point. That's when we strike." 

"Okay, so what do we do in the meantime?" Hunk wonders.

"Defense!" Shiro orders as the Galactic Gladiator throws an energy orb, "Pidge, we need that shield!" Shiro orders quickly as the energy orb strikes Voltron's shield, "That's one. Two more to go!" 

Another strike hits the shield.

"We can't take much more!" Hunk yells.

"Last one! Everyone brace for impact!" Shiro orders, "Now!" 

Keith fires the Red Lion's mouth cannon. The strike lands but the Galactic Gladiator still stands.

"It didn't work!" Pidge observes.

"So, now what?" Lance asks, before an energy orb hits Voltron.

"When I attacked him before, I had a sword!" Shiro growled.

"Orb! Orb!" Hunk warns as a second strike from the orb hits.

"We can't take another shot like that!" Pidge yells.

Red has an idea, communicates with Keith and displays the Bayard keyhole.

"Wait a second, guys! Mo-My Lion's telling me what to do," Keith catches himself, causing Red to coo happily.

"Well whatever it is, hurry up and do it! He's about to fire his third shot!" Lance yells.

Keith tries to use his Bayard but the energy orb hits a third time, shaking Voltron. The Galactic Gladiator jumps in the air to deliver a final blow but Keith inserts his Bayard into the Red Lion's keyhole console and summons a saber for Voltron to wield, slicing the Robeast once so it explodes.

"Yeah!" Everyone but Keith cheer.

"We did it!" Pidge cheers.

"How did you do that?" Hunk wonders.

Keith is stunned and looks at his Bayard, but smiles, finally feeling happy, "Whoa... Heheh. Thanks, Red."

Meanwhile

At the Galra Empire's Central Command, Haggar witnesses her Robeast fail thanks to a drone, "No! I'll make another, more powerful." 

"That won't be necessary. Sendak is still alive on Arus. I've given him instructions for how to proceed." 

"Can he be trusted?" 

"I trained him and he has his mission. He fights in the name of Galra. Only success or death will stop him." 

On Arus, Sentries gather supply crates for Sendak and his high level officer Haxus near the Arusian village.

"Zarkon has challenged us to rise from the mud and prove our worth. We will not let him down." 

"Sir, how are we going to take the Castle with just the two of us and five damaged Sentries?" Haxus asks.

"By exploiting our enemy's weaknesses." 

"What weaknesses?" 

"The worst weakness of all: they value the lives of others." 

Meanwhile

Inside the Castle of Lions, the former Galra prisoners prepare to leave in a flight pod. Everyone but Shiro and Pidge see them leave.

"Good luck out there," Lance encourages.

"Thank you all for everything. We never dreamed we'd see our families again. But you gave us hope. You gave the universe hope," the Xi says, "And one more thing. Take care kit. It's good to see you have a real family. You deserve it," the Xi says, resting his hand on his shoulder as the other prisoners nod in agreement.

Keith smiles, embarrassed, and looks at his confused new friends, nodding, happy.

Meanwhile

Pidge sits outside the Castle with the Altean Mice. 

Shiro approaches and says, "Pidge, there you are." 

"Why would you hurt my brother? You were friends." 

"I did it to save him." 

"What?" 

"My memory of the event came back when we were fighting the monster. Your dad was being sent off with the weaker prisoners to a work camp. Meanwhile, Matt and I were forced to fight in the gladiator Arena. That's where we both met Keith. He taught us to survive. The thing is Matt was going to fight first, but he was scared. We all were," Shiro says and recalls the past:

_”I'm not going to make it. I'll never see my family again!" Matt freaks out as Keith places a hand on his shoulder, reassuringly, a sad smile on his face._

_"You can do this," Shiro encourages._

_A Sentry offered Matt a sword, but Matt recoiled in fear._

_Shiro stole the blade, yelling, "This is my fight!" Shiro injured Matt and tackled him away from Keith, screaming, "I want blood!"_

_Shiro whispered to Matt, only loud enough for them and Keith to hear, "Take care of your father."_

_Shiro is dragged away to fight. This is where his memories end. He stops reflecting on the past and his mind returns to the present._

"You saved him? You attacked him so they would choose you instead," Pidge hugs Shiro, "I'm so sorry I doubted you! Thank you! Thank you so much!" 

Shiro returns the hug, "I can tell you really miss them. I know they miss you, too. Your brother and father would be proud of you, Katie." 

Pidge is surprised her secret is known.

"Don't worry, your secret's safe with me. Well, me and Keith."

Shiro and Pidge watch the sunset together.

"Keith knew my brother as well?"

"Yeah... He must've not had time to tell you or want to upset you. I know it upsets him. They were close, after all," Shiro sighs.

"I hope I can get to know Keith like you do. He seems great," Pidge says, resting her head on Shiro's shoulder.

"You will. I promise. He's already warming up to you," Shiro looks at her and smiles, wrapping an arm around Pidge.

_"I hope I can get to know Katie like you do. She seems great," Keith says, resting his head on Matt's shoulder._

_”You will. I promise. I'm already warming up to you. She will too," Matt looks at him and smiles, wrapping an arm around Keith as they fall asleep in the cell, the day before the fight in the arena._

"Your secret is safe Katie and we will find them. I promise," Keith whispers from where he stands behind a pillar, near the two, watching.

Shiro looks back and they make eye contact. Keith nods and heads inside, smiling.


	9. Eventual Evil

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the defeat of the beast, it is only natural to celebrate, but maybe opening the castle wasn’t the right way to do it

In the Castle of Lions, the Arusian King tells his version of Voltron's battle against the Galactic Gladiator before a party of Arusians. Two groups of Arusians act as either combatant.

"The monster fell from the sky! It was an epic battle, but Voltron was victorious!" The King proclaims and the Arusians pretending to be the Robeast knock down the other Arusians pretending to be Voltron.

"... No. I said, Voltron was victorious!" The King repeats and the Arusians end the battle accurately, causing the Arusians to cheer.

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for that... wonderful production. It saddens me that we must leave tomorrow, but we must continue our battle with Zarkon and spread peace throughout the universe," Allura thanks the King and gives him an Altean communicator, "Your Highness... please accept this gift. This will allow you to contact us anytime you need help. Arus will be the first planet in the Voltron Alliance."

"Hoorah!" The Arusian King holds up the communicator; the Arusians cheer. 

Hunk approaches Keith and Lance, who are watching the display. Keith's ghost of a smile at the joy and innocence the Arusians give off is not lost on the other two Paladins.

"We ought to get something like that," Hunk smiles, hoping to get Keith to smile more openly.

"Like what?" Lance asks, confused on what he means.

"You know, like, a cheer. Like, a team cheer that we do."

"Mm-hmm. Yeah, okay. How about, uh... I say 'Vol' and you say 'Tron.' Vol—!" Lance begins, glancing at Keith hopefully.

"Uh... Vol-tron?" Keith replies, thoroughly confused.

"No! No, no, no, no, no. The cheer includes the instructions. I say 'Vol' and you say..." Lance tries again.

"... Vol-tron?"

"... We'll work on it," Lance responds, trying not to offend his friend.

Keith just shrugs at Hunk. A platter of drinks come past and Lance drinks Nunvill and is disgusted. Keith hides a snicker at his face, remembering how he got used to drinking it, often when he was ill.

"Coran, what is this?" Lance manages.

"Oh, this is Nunvill, the nectar of the gods."

"It tastes like hot dog water and feet."

"Yeah, makes a wonderful hair tonic as well," Coran sprinkles Nunvill on his mustache and it grows luxurious. 

Lance retches, causing Keith and Hunk to prod at him until he falls. Coran approaches Shiro, who is watching the Castle's entrance. Keith's eyes follow him and he continues to keep glancing at them, even when Hunk and Lance try to get him to loosen up.

"Not feeling well? Try some Nunvill. Settles the stomach and brightens your smile."

"I'm not sure we should be letting everyone wander in and out of the Castle like this. It doesn't seem safe," Shiro replies, faint memories coming to him with vivid emotions.

"Oh, these Arusians won't hurt anything—" Coran says, before he sees Arusians playing with a hover platter, "... Much," he cringes at the sound of them crashing, "Besides, it's only fair to let them see the inside of a Castle that's been sitting on their planet for so long."

"But who knows when Zarkon will attack again? I'm going to do a perimeter check, just in case," Shiro replies and exits the Castle, not noticing Keith glance at him in worry (memories of a time long past when Shiro would tell stories to a smaller, skinnier boy, even when under threat pillaging his mind).

Near the Castle of Lions, Sendak watches the Castle with Haxus.

"Commander Sendak, the Sentries are in position around the Arusian village."

"Luck is on our side. Look, the Castle defenses are down. The door is wide open. With all these Arusians coming in and out, it should be nothing for you to infiltrate," Sendak smirks as Haxus spies Pidge with Rover.

"I may not have to. Look. The small one has a Galra drone they've repurposed. If I can just get close enough to clone its signature code, I can send our bomb drone in undetected," Haxus points out.

"I knew you would not disappoint me, Haxus."

Haxus leaves for the Castle.

In the Castle vestibule, Allura watches the Paladins with the Altean Mice.

"Look at them, the new Paladins of Voltron. The fate of the universe is on their shoulders."

Lance and Hunk have spent their time getting Keith to eat more again, without him noticing. Keith manages to convince Lance to drink the Nunvill again but he finds it foul so he spits it out again but this time on Hunk. Hunk turns away and then reveals Arusian food stuck to his eyes.

"Ow, my eyes!" Hunk yells.

The boys all laugh. However, despite her faint smile, she is unimpressed.

"... I must portray strength, so no one can tell how concerned I am about the fate of our mission," Allura sighs and the blue mouse with red eyes squeaks, "Let's... keep that a secret," the mouse squeaks again, "Who else has secrets?" the blue mouse with red eyes uses another mice as a demonstration, "Hunk tried to eat what? That is rather amusing. What other secrets?" blue mouse with blue eyes pretends to be Lance shooting things and posing, "That seems like Lance," the blue mouse with blue eyes pretends to look adorable, "Pidge is a what!?"

Allura's surprise is replaced by suspicion as she watches Pidge secretly put alien food in a backpack and pick an ear with a stick, sniff it, and retch.

"Hmm... Are you sure?"

The mouse nods.

"I'm getting to the bottom of this."

Lance and Hunk are talking at the party. 

"I guess we should get used to this space juice. Who knows when we'll get back home again?" Lance says.

"Yeah, if ever."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, if this Zarkon guy has been ruling for 10,000 years, how long do you think it will take for us to fix it? You know, if we live."

"Right. That."

Hunk looks at the alien food he's grabbed, "Hey, what do you think the chances are of us landing on a nacho planet?"

"What's a nacho?" Keith asks.

"It's a food on Earth. We will have to get you to try it one day," Lance smiles, looking on the bright side; he has memories of his home to treasure but Keith never had a home.

"My mother used to make the best guacamole when I was a kid. We use nachos and dip them in," Hunk tells him, tone saddening as he watches Keith's intrigued eyes fade into dullness.

Keith begins to walk away and Hunk goes to follow but Lance stops him, shaking his head.

"Remember we've got to give him time."

Coran watches the scene and sighs, recognising the signs of a family lost and gained.

Allura approaches Pidge who is followed by Rover, "So, Pidge, we haven't had a chance to really... talk. Tell me about yourself."

"Hmm... Well, I like peanut butter, and I like peanut butter cookies, but I hate peanuts. They're so dry. Also, I sweat a lot. I-I mean, in general, unrelated to the peanuts," Pidge says, before she tries to walk away, but Allura intervenes.

"I-I suppose I was thinking of something a little more personal?" Allura winks, "We have a lot in common."

Pidge is unimpressed and asks, "Like what?

"Oh, well... Both of us had our fathers taken away by Zarkon."

"Yeah, but I'm going to get mine back."

Allura looks pained. 

Pidge realizes how harsh that that statement was and tries to apologise, "Augh... Sorry. I-I really didn't mean to—"

"No, I understand. I just want you to know that you can confide in me. If there's anything you ever want to talk about..." Allura says but Pidge is silent, "... Anything."

"Huh? ... Okay. I do have something to tell you."

Allura is overjoyed, "I had a feeling~! What is it?"

"I'm leaving Team Voltron."

Allura is about to speak, expecting something else entirely. She stops.

"Wait, what?!" Allura cries out.

"I decrypted the information from the Galra ship about where my family might be, or at least where they were. I've made up my mind. I'm leaving tonight," Pidge explains.

"Pidge, you can't. You're one of five Paladins. You have a sacred trust to defend the universe."

"My first priority is to find my family! I thought you of all people would understand. If you had a chance to get your father back, wouldn't you?"

Allura frowns.

"I'm sorry. I should go tell everyone else."

Pidge walks away and finds Shiro outside the Castle.

"Shiro? I need to talk to you."

Pidge approaches Shiro. Haxus hides among the rocks nearby and scans Rover for its code.

"Signature code cloned."

Shiro is led inside by Pidge. Haxus reconfigures the bomb drone with Rover's signature.

"Bomb activated."

Haxus leaves as the bomb drone heads inside the Castle.

Keith sits forlornly in the Bridge of the Castleship. 

Coran approaches, "Mind if I join you?"

"How far away from Earth do you think we are, Coran?"

"Let's take a look," Coran brings up a holographic map of the universe to show Keith, "Earth is over here. And we're aaaaaaall... the waaaaay... oveeeeer..." Coran moves the map for a long time and still does not reach Arus.

"You ever notice how far the planets are from each other, Coran?" Keith asks, worried about his new teammates, remembering Shiro's stories about Earth.

_"I'll take you there someday. You can meet Matt's family. They'll love you."_

"Yes. Haven't you been paying attention?" Coran says, snapping Keith out of his thoughts.

Keith approaches the map and Coran stops, "Yeah, but I mean, like, they're really, really far away. Like, say, Earth? It's so far, I can't even see it. The... The blue oceans, the white clouds, green grass... I c—-I-I... I can't see any of it."

_”I'll show you it all. The... The blue oceans, the white clouds, green grass... Family... I know you will love Katie and she'll love you."_

"You want to see Earth. I understand. I miss Altea."

"I know we're supposed to be brave Paladins and Defenders of the Universe or whatever, but, honestly? I just want to go home," Keith says (the "I just want my family" goes unsaid).

"If I could go home, I would," Coran says, placing a hand on Keith's shoulder.

"Shiro missed rain, and splashing in puddles."

"Rain?"

"Yeah. I think it's water that falls from the sky?"

"Oh, we had that on Altea. Only, it wasn't water, more like rocks. Razor-sharp and boiling-hot. Oh, they could knock a hole right in your head."

"Sounds fun," Keith giggles slightly.

"Yeah," Coran places a hand on Keith's shoulder, "Remember your family is here for you."

_"Remember we are here. Remember your family is here for you."_

"Yeah," Keith hugs Coran, "Thank you."

The bomb drone moves through the Castle. Pidge is speaking with the rest of the team in the halls.

"Pidge, no...!" Shiro protests,

"The download from the Galra ship was enough to at least get me in the right direction to start my search. I have a pod all ready to go."

Lance approaches Pidge, "You can't leave!"

"You can't tell me what to do!"

"If you leave, we can't form Voltron. And that means we can't defend the universe against Zarkon. You're not the only one with a family. All these Arusians have families. Everyone in the universe has families," Lance argues.

"Yeah, I have a family. They live on Earth. I want to be with them. Is that—Is that, like, a thing that can happen?" Hunk asks, guilt tinting his tone as he thinks about the consequences; Keith being a big factor (he was just starting to open up).

"You want to leave, too?" Allura questions in disbelief.

"Of course I do. Look, Voltron is super-cool, don't get me wrong, but I never signed up for a lifetime in space fighting aliens," Hunk sighs.

Lance is enraged and aggressively closes in on Pidge, "YOU'RE PUTTING THE LIVES OF TWO PEOPLE OVER THE LIVES OF EVERYONE ELSE IN THE ENTIRE GALAXY! OVER KEITH—!"

Shiro grabs Lance by the arm, "—Lance! That's not how a team works. People have to want to be a part of it. They can't be forced."

Lance silently relents, an unusual snarl adorning his face and grumpy crossing of his arm.

Shiro turns to Pidge, "If you want to leave, we won't try to stop you. But, please, just think about what you're doing."

Pidge looks conflicted, but remains firm, "I'm sorry. You're going to have to find someone else to pilot the Green Lion."

_This is for Keith._

Pidge leaves with Rover.

"I can't believe it. This team is falling apart. How will we ever form Voltron?" Allura groans.

The Galra bomb drone enters the Bridge as Lance and Coran are leaving.

"Hey, Rover," Keith acknowledges but the Galra bomb drone ignores Keith and heads to the Power Crystal.

Keith stops, "Wait... Where's Pidge?" Keith turns, looks at the drone and gasps as it prepares to explode.

"Coran, look out!"

Keith launches himself at Coran as the drone explodes and destroys the Power Crystal so the Castle loses power. The blast is felt throughout the Castle of Lions. The Arusians flee to their village. The rest of the team gathers in the Bridge to find Coran unharmed.

"What happened?!" Shiro yells.

"Ugh... I'm not sure," Coran says, getting up.

Smoke clears and Allura notices that the Power Crystal is destroyed, "The Crystal!"

The team sees Keith unconscious.

"Keith!" Allura cries, whilst the team all gasp.

Shiro holds Keith, "Keith...? Keith!"

"We have to get Keith to the infirmary!" Pidge orders, on the verge of tears.

"Without the Crystal, the Castle has no power," Allura informs them.

"He doesn't look good," Shiro murmurs.

The Arusian King decides to enter at this time, "Lion warriors, our village is under attack! We need help!"

"Let's get to the Lions!" Lance suggests.

"You can't. They're sealed in their hangars. There's no way to get them out. We're defenseless," Allura adds.

"Will you not help us?" The King wonders aloud.

"We'll help you. We just—" Lance is cut off by Keith groaning in pain.

"This is bad," Hunk says, kneeling down to move some hair from Keith's forehead.

"We have to get a new Crystal to get the Castle working again. But, to get a new Crystal, we need a ship," Coran groaned.

"The pod I was loading, we can use that! I left the bay door open."

"I can use the scanner in the pod to see if there's a Balmera nearby. Hunk, you come with me. I'll need someone big to help me carry the Crystal."

"A Balmera?" Hunk questions.

"It's where the Crystals come from. I'll tell you about it on the way!"

Hunk, Pidge and Coran leave for the flight pod.

"I'll go see what's happening at the Arusian village."

"I'll go with you, Lance. I brought this on the poor Arusians," Allura sighs.

"I'll tend to Keith and stand watch over the Castle," Shiro replies.

Allura and Lance leave with the Arusian King. In the Flight Pod Hangar, Coran and Hunk are in a flight pod.

"It's our first bit of luck. There's a source not too far. We won't need a Wormhole to get there, thankfully," Coran sighs in relief,

"I made some modifications to the shuttle. The first change is a cloaking device that I reverse-engineered from the invisible walls on the Training Deck. The second is a tank of booster fuel that I mounted on the fuel line," Pidge informs them, pointing out some buttons.

"Using that during flight would turn the whole pod into a bomb!" Coran cries out.

Hunk looks terrified.

"Okay. Maybe you shouldn't use that modification after all," Pidge relents.

"We ready to hit it?" Hunk asks.

"Right. Let's go," Coran continues.

The flight pod prepares to take off. Pidge gives Hunk and Coran a thumbs-up.

"Good luck," Pidge encourages.

Hunk gives Pidge a thumbs-up. The flight pod leaves the Castle.

Shiro is carrying Keith to the Castle's entrance. Keith is unconscious.

"Hang on, buddy. Help is on the way," Shiro says, but sees Sendak approaching, "Sendak!"

Shiro lays Keith down so he is hidden from view and meets Sendak in front of the Castle.

"Stand aside."

"No! You're not getting in," Shiro replies and activates his prosthetic arm and prepares to fight.

"Yes, I am," Sendak replies.

Shiro furiously battles Sendak. Both throw a punch and end up locked at the knuckle.

"I see you spent some time with the Druids. They do love to experiment. Too bad you didn't get the latest model," Sendak mocks and launches his gauntlet to send Shiro back inside the Castle. They continue to fight and end up poised with each other's glowing hand against their throats.

"Let him go or your friend won't make it!" Haxus threatens, holding Keith.

Shiro sees Keith is still unconscious and has been captured. He backs down. Sendak takes his chance and strikes Shiro unconscious.

"Voltron is ours!" Sendak declares, leaving for the Bridge. 

Pidge is still in the Castle and watches the whole fight without being noticed.

"Oh, no," Pidge whispers and leaves to elsewhere in the Castle.

Meanwhile, Lance, Allura and the Arusian King arrive at the burning Arusian village.

"What's happening?" Allura demands.

"Look! Attackers!" the King says, pointing to Galra Sentries standing among the flames and explosions.

"I'll go in for a closer look. Stay here with them," Lance says, diving into the fray.

"Lance!" Allura yells as Lance approaches the Sentries which he sees are broken decoys.

"What? Oh, no. They tricked us!" Lance says and speaks to Allura through her communication earrings, "It was just a diversion to separate us and thin the Castle defenses!"

Allura looks in shock towards the Castle. 

Inside, the Galra hook up their own Power Crystal to the Castle of Lions.

"Power up the Castle," Sendak orders and the Castle of Lions powers up in Galra violet. A computer screen shows all the Voltron Lions are in place, "The Lions are all in their bays. Raising particle barrier. Begin launch sequence."

The particle barrier activates, preventing Lance and Allura from entering in time. Lance slams his fist on the barrier and yells, "We're too late... No!"

"They have control of the Castle. They're taking Voltron!" Allura cries out.

Meanwhile, Sendak is in the Castle Bridge, "Make contact with Emperor Zarkon."

Haxus brings up Zarkon on screen who acknowledges his presence with a, "Sendak."

"My mission is complete. I've captured the Altean castle, along with all of the Voltron Lions. I am currently preparing for launch and will be delivering them all to you shortly."

"This news is most pleasing. You have done your duty. Vrepit Sa!"

"Vrepit Sa!"

The transmission ends.

"Haxus, ready the Castle for takeoff."

"Yes, Commander."

Outside, Lance summons his Bayard into form and asks, "Can we break through the barrier?"

"No. And whoever has taken the Castle has a Crystal, which means they'll be able to fly the ship. We have to stop them."

"How are we going to do that?" Lance wonders aloud, just before Pidge contacts him through his helmet.

"Lance, can you hear me?"

"Pidge! Is that you? Where are you?"

"I'm inside the Castle. Sendak has taken over and he's preparing for launch. He's got Keith and Shiro."

"Pidge, listen. If they've started the launch sequence, then we don't have much time before liftoff to stop it," Allura informs her.

"What do I have to do?"

"You have to get down to the main engine control panel and disconnect the primary turbine from the Central Energy Chamber. If you can do that, Sendak will have to reset the whole system. That might give us enough time to find a way to stop them," Allura explains.

Pidge pulls up a map of the Castleship from the Paladin armor and heads off to do as instructed.

Meanwhile, Coran and Hunk arrive at the Balmera.

"Is this the Balmera planet with the crystals?"

"It's not a planet. Balmera are ancient animals. Petrified, but still alive. Their bodies naturally create the crystals that help power many Altean ships. I often accompanied my grandfather to visit these majestic creatures when he was building the Castle of Lions. I'll never forget the first time I saw the sparkling surface of a Balmera. You're in for quite a treat," Coran explains.

...

...

...

The Balmera looks nothing like the sparkling image Coran brings up on screen.

"Oh, no... This is horrifying. The Galra have turned this into a mining colony! Oh, they're completely destroying it! They have no regard for the poor creature!" Coran is almost in tears at this revelation.

"Uh-oh. We've been spotted."

A patrolling Galra fighter jet detects them and tails them, "Hailing unidentified craft. State your ship ID, entry code, and landing destination."

"Oh, no. What do we do?" Hunk panics.

"Just stay calm," Coran say and radios the fighter jet, "We don't really need to land. Uh, we're just looking around, if that's okay."

"Unidentified craft, land immediately and prepare to be boarded."

"Okay. Uh, thank you. See you down below," Coran ends the transmission and instantly takes off in reverse, pulling some crazy piloting to escape that makes Hunk scream (like everything).

The fighter jet fires lasers.

"Not done yet. Hang on!" Coran sends the flight pod diving into a mining hole at full speed.

Hunk continues to scream, this time repeating, "Coran! Coran!"

The hole continues as HUNK screams. He finally calms as nothing happens.

"... ... How deep is this thing?" Hunk asks, just before a Galra structure appears in their path, "Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no—!"

The flight pod speeds too fast to avoid the structure and collides, spinning into a crash landing at the bottom of the hole. The flight pod opens; Hunk looks around and sees two pairs of glowing eyes staring at them.

"Coran, what lives at the bottom of these mines?"

On Arus, Pidge forces entry into an elevator shaft with the drone Rover.

"Hey, Rover," Pidge says and Rover follows Pidge inside the shaft and hovers in place, "Okay, Rover, here we go."

Rover follows Pidge down the shaft to the bottom. Sendak and Haxus are still in the Bridge.

"Run main cluster activation sequence," Sendak orders.

"Activation sequence initiated. Powering up for launch."

Pidge reaches the Central Energy Chamber where the engine is, "Okay, Allura, I'm near the turbine. I think it's started."

"Then you'll have to hurry. Cross the catwalk to the main column in the center."

Pidge does as instructed, "Okay."

"Now, open the hatch. Find the central computer control hub and enter the following sequence..."

"Wait, wait, wait, wait! Which one is it? All the labels are in Altean!"

Meanwhile, in the Castle's Bridge.

"Commander Sendak, we are ready for launch."

The launch starts and energy swells the chamber, disrupting the communication channel between Allura and Pidge.

"I can't tell which one it is! Allura? Allura? Uh..."

Outside, Allura and Lance witness the impending launch of the Castleship.

"I've lost connection with Pidge! Oh, no! It's taking off!" Allura panics.

Meanwhile, Pidge panics to find a solution, 0Uh... Uh... Whatever," Pidge says and eventually gives up, slams the Green Bayard into the engine turbine, being thrown back, but successfully interrupting the launch.

"The main engine just shorted out!" Haxus reports.

Sendak pulls up a feed of the Central Energy Chamber and sees Pidge fleeing.

"We have a saboteur. Find him and take him out."


	10. Extreme Excavation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Keith’s life on the line, the team have a lot of work ahead of them.

"Haxus! I want whoever's in this ship found and terminated!"

"Commander Sendak, I've received a transmission generating from somewhere inside."

" _There's not much time before they get the ship running again. You must shut off the particle barrier so we can get in,_ " Allura's voice says.

" _You got it. Tell me what to do_ ," comes Pidge's voice.

_"The particle barrier generator is beneath the main hull_ ," Allura is heard to reply.

"She's telling the intruder how to take down our defenses," Haxus sounds almost offended.

"Yes, but she's also giving away his location. Find that room. Kill the paladin. Repair the engine. Emperor Zarkon has commanded us to bring him Voltron. This ship will rise before day's end," Sendak replies.

Meanwhile, Hunk and Coran whimper.

"Okay, don't come any closer! I don't know how to use this very well. Wait a minute. You're not Galra," Hunk realises, calming down slightly.

"Nor are you," the female alien gasps.

"A patrol! Shay, we must take leave from these ones, now," the male alien beckons the female.

"Wait, please! We need your help. If the Galra find us, they'll kill us," Coran says.

"Or torture us."

"Or keep us as some sort of creepy pet to play with how they please."

"Not our problem, Hairy Lip. Galra see us near you and they kill both you and us. Shay, exeunt!" the male says.

"No! These many years only Galra have been seen here. I will not turn my back on the skylings," Shay refuses.

"Vex! Grab a side," the male grunts, "In here. Hurry!"

"Thanks for saving us. I'm Hunk."

"Shay. And this one, my brother Rax. How did you fall to us?"

"Well, we came looking for something. And you guys might be the right people to help us find it."

Meanwhile, Allura asks, "Pidge, have you made it to the generator room?"

"I'm in. This technology is so advanced, I don't know if I can figure it out."

"Yes, you can. The lives of your fellow paladins are at stake. You can't give up."

Pidge's brain decides that now it should flashback and her dad says, _"Hope you enjoy this home-cooked meal, Matt. After our launch to Kerberos tomorrow, we'll be eating freeze-dried peas for the next two months."_

_”Don't lie. I know you love those peas, Dad," Matt says._

_”It's true. Those Garrison chefs really know how to genetically manufacture a delicious vegetable," Mr Holt says._

_"I wish I was going up with you guys," Pidge's sighs._

_"Just you wait, kiddo. Something tells me that you're going to have your own crew someday. You're going to fly with them to worlds so far away, we can't even imagine. I bet my bottom dollar you're going to be part of something that makes the whole universe sit up and take notice."_

_Pidge's mind changes to watching the TV from behind Mrs Holt where the News Anchor says, "The Galaxy Garrison mission to the distant moon of Kerberos is missing, and all crew members are believed to be dead. The Galaxy Garrison has said the crash was presumably caused by pilot error. It is, indeed, a sad day for all humanity."_

_The sound of a computer beeping is interrupted by the lights turning on._

_"You again? Get off my computer! How did you get past the guards?" Commander Iverson of the space program Lance, Hunk and Pidge's were apart of back on Earth._

_"You said the spacecraft went down due to pilot error. I saw the video feeds from your probes. There's no evidence of a crash anywhere on Kerberos!" Pidge's yells._

_”Those feeds are classified! I could charge you with treason for hacking into them."_

_"Where's my family?"_

_"Escort Miss Holt off the premises and make sure every guard knows she's never allowed on Garrison property ever again," orders Iverson._

_“You can't keep me out! I'll find the truth! I'll never stop!"_

Pidge refocuses and says, "Okay. Talk me through it, Allura."

"Shutting down the barrier from this room can be dangerous. Remember, the barrier is also a weapon. So, stay away from the energy arcs."

"Don't touch the giant lightning bolts. Got it," Pidge says and Rover beeps nervously.

"Now, what I'm going to need you to do is-" Allura begins before Pidge screams and sounds of lasers shooting echo through the communications devices, "Pidge! Hello? Are you there? Pidge, what's going on? Wait... the mice. Maybe they can help," mentally Allura communicates with the mouse, "Friends, I need your help."

The mice squeak in reply.

Pudge grunts, "My only way out is two floors up? Seriously?," Pidge yells, "Let's try this."

"There!" a Galra Drone says and they are pushed into the giant electricity bolt, causing the sound of electricity crackling.

Pidge screams, "Whoa! Can't believe that worked!"

"You stay and guard the generator," says one Drone.

"The invisible maze. Let's see them get through this," Pidge says and the chase begins.

The sounds of electricity crackling, Rover beeping proudly, lasers shooting and Pidge grunting and screaming quickly fill the air.

Pidge sighs before falling through vents and yells, before Rover catches them, "Rover. Nice save, buddy," and Rover beeps happily.

Meanwhile, Hunk says, "Thanks for the delicious soup. Are these potatoes in here?"

"Grandma's special dish for special visitors. Cave-root for the skin. Cave bugs for the soul," Shay informs them.

Hunk retches but swallows.

"Oh! Thank you for the bugs. O-Okay, I think that's too many," Coran says as more are poured into his bowl.

"So, how many of you are down here?" Hunk asks.

"There are thousands here on Balmera. We work and live in these mines. We harvest crystals for Zarkon," the father replies.

"Zarkon. That's so.. sad that he's enslaved an entire planet," Hunk replies.

"Zarkon may rule, but we still have family. That's where true happiness comes from," the father says.

"Galra would tear our family asunder if they found these ones. Everyone comes to Balmera and takes, but gives nothing in return," Rax practically growls out.

"In the past, those who took the Balmera's crystals would replenish her with energy. It was an equal exchange. But the Galra only take. It is no wonder we can feel her suffering," Shay replies as they hear the Balmera moaning.

"I'm sorry that we put everyone in this situation, but the faster we get the crystal and get out, the faster everyone is out of danger. We're looking for a battleship-class crystal," Hunk says.

"Battleship-class crystal? Those are most rare. Galra soldiers guard them ceaselessly until their harvest. Your quest is in vain," the father sighs.

"There is one, found only weeks ago. It is almost excavated," Shay tries.

"Quiet! Even if they could steal the crystal from the Galra, battle patrols wait to take down their ship. These ones have no chance of getting out of here alive, with crystal or without," Rax replies.

"Okay, so this crystal we need is basically the hardest thing in the universe to get," Hunk sighs.

"I don't know about the hardest. There is the scaultrite mineral found only in the stomachs of giant weblums. Collecting that stuff's no picnic. Uh - but, yes, this seems very difficult," Coran thinks aloud.

"You may stay here until Balmera gives another crystal. One that is hidden from Galra eyes," Shay suggests.

"We don't have that kind of time. I got an injured friend who needs to get into a magic healing machine, stat," Hunk answers.

"Hunk, you fix the pod. I'm going to do some reconnaissance and see if I can come up with another plan," Coran sighs, worried.

_Pidge grunts, sighs and groans, "First day of school. Time for a haircut."_

_The sound of hair snipping can be heard._

_"I made it! I'm a fighter pilot. Hasta la later, James! And look, you're my engineer," Lance grins, looking at a sheet._

_"Cool. Uh, can I do that from the ground?" Hunk asks._

_"And our communications officer is... Who the heck is Pidge Gunderson?" Lance ignores him._

_"Right here."_

_"Welcome to the team, Gunderson. I'm Lance, your fighter pilot," Lance introduces himself._

_"Hey, I'm Hunk."_

_"We got a lot of great times ahead, so we should probably start bonding now," Lance begins before his voice begins to fade as Pidge pays attention to Iverson behind them, "What do you say we sneak out of campus..."_

_"Security for the Galaxy Garrison's mainframe is our first priority. It's been breached once. And by a little girl, no less. It can not happen again!" Iverson says before walking pass, causing the cadets to salute, "Wrong arm, cadet."_

_Pidge sighs._

_"Hello? Pizza? Girls? Astronauts?" Lance says to Pidge._

_"Sorry, I don't have time to mess around with you guys. See you in the simulator," Pidge replies._

_"What's his problem?" Lance asks Hunk._

"You know, Rover, I haven't always been there for my team. But this time, I will be. Come on," Pidge says.

Mice can be heard squeaking and the sound of a gate crashing echoes through the hallways.

Meanwhile, Shay asks Hunk, "Tell me, what is the sky like?"

"The sky? You seriously have never even seen the sky?"

"No... but, at night, I sneak up as high as I dare, trying to imagine what it is like. Oh, lucky are you to fly in this machine to worlds far from here."

"Well, it doesn't have to be like this. You can be free, too."

"Free?"

"Yeah, free. It means you can go where you want, be what you want, do what you want. No Galra masters to tell you what to do."

"It makes no sense. Zarkon controls everything."

"Nope. No, things are changing. Have you heard of Voltron?"

"A child's tale."

"It's real. I'm one of the paladins, and Voltron is going to defeat Zarkon."

"You are?"

"Stop filling this one's head with your shadow show! The cavern is our home. This will never change. Come," Rax interrupts.

Meanwhile, the Galra prepare for takeoff, Haxus observes, "Powering sub panels."

"Sub panel energy transducer is go," Sendak replies.

"Aye, sir. Opening pathway to link with bridge. Initializing main cluster reboot," Haxus adds.

Rover beeps and Pidge says, "Gotcha," from their place of work.

"Initializing complete. I'm set for main power up," Haxus informs.

"The bridge is go," Sendak observes.

"Powering up."

"And up, and up, and up. I would not want to be touching a metal surface when this thing overloads," Pidge tells Rover and causes an alarm to start blaring.

"Sir, something is wrong," Haxus says before he screams from pain.

Pidge grunts.

"You're the one causing all this trouble? A child?" Haxus questions Pidge.

"I'm not a child. I'm a Paladin of Voltron," Pidge growls.

Haxus chuckles, "Let me tell you something, child. I'm a soldier of the Galra Empire. Nothing stops me but triumph or death," he yells.

Both fight, grunting as their weapons meet until Haxus gets the upper hand, causing Pidge to fall, yell and groan.

"Nowhere left to run. Nowhere left to hide," Haxus mocks.

Rover beeps loudly and distracts Haxus so that Pidge can climb up, but at a cost.

Rover beeps in alarm.

"Rover!"

Rover whirs.

Rover powers down.

"No!" Pidge cries as Haxus screams, "No!" she moans.

"Haxus, report in," Sendak requests.

"Haxus is gone, and you're next!" Pidge yells angrily.

"You've slowed me down, but this ship is mine! You will turn yourself over to me immediately!" Sendak growls.

"Never!" Pidge refuses.

"Well, then, maybe your leader can convince you," Sendak answers.

"What do you want?" Shiro asks angrily.

"Your friend wanted to hear from you," Sendak grins wickedly.

"Shiro?" Pidge asks.

"Pidge? Pidge, don't listen to-" Shiro stops and starts screaming.

"No!" Pidge cries out,

"You can make it stop. Turn yourself in. His suffering is in your hands," Sendak tries to persuade her.

Meanwhile, Rax asks Coran and Hunk, "Is your ship repaired so that you may depart our presence?"

"Uh, are you saying that you want us to leave?" Hunk wonders.

"Yes."

"Well, it's working, but we can't leave without the crystal. You come up with any ideas how to get it?" Hunk turns to Coran.

"Actually, yes," Coran relies, sounding surprised.

"I can't believe I'm the legs again. I'm the one who took down the guard. I should get to be the head," Hunk mutters irritated.

"Shh! Legs don't talk. Oh, hello, gentlemen, shift's over. Boss needs you back at the guard shack," Coran tries to impersonate the guard.

"Verify identification code," the drone says.

"Right. I didn't want to have to do this, but I'm going to have to pull rank. You guys are in big trouble, right? So, hand over those blasters and ID badges," Coran tries...

"Verify identification code or be destroyed."

"Okay, okay. I've got it right... here!" and fails.

Guns start firing but Hunk and Coran make it to the crystal.

"What are you doing? We got to hurry!" Hunk panics when he sees Coran just touching the crystal.

"I'm not just going to pry this out of here like some Galra monster. The Balmera is a sacred being. You have to communicate with it. Let your life forces connect. This is the way it was done in our time," Coran answers back.

"Whoa. You really know your Balmeras," Hunk says as the dirt crumbles away to let the crystal go.

Coran strains in order to try and lift it, screaming, until a crack is heard, "I think I'm broken."

"Huh?" Hunk sighs and the guards come in, surrounding them.

Coran continues grunting as he limps over, "Okay, guys! All right, I hate to do this. Blasters and badges. Come on. Give them up."

Then collapses. A resounding thud echoes through the chamber.

"I'm impressed that you managed to escape. Perhaps it would be worth the trip to your planet to see if the rest of your kind have your spirit. Of course, they will all end up broken, just like you. Now that we have Voltron, every planet, every race, all share the same fate," Sendak says.

"Quiznak! I can't believe they saw through our disguise," Coran curses, before listening to the sound of footsteps approaching, "Someone's coming."

"Shay?" Hunk acknowledges his friend, who turns the forcefield off.

"Make haste to your pod. The crystal is prepared for departure," Shay tells them.

"How did you get the crystal?" Coran asks.

"I was assigned to take it to the upper levels, but instead I took it down. Soon, they will discover my ruse. Time is short," Shay hurries them.

"Why are you helping us? You'll get in trouble," Hunk worries.

"Because your words touched my heart. I wish for freedom for all Balmera. Perhaps your Voltron can make it so," Shay admits as they all reach the ship, where Rax is waiting with drones, "No. Rax, why?"

"These two bring only trouble to our family. It was the only way to protect you," Rax replies easily.

Hunk growls and goes to shoot but Shay stops him, "No! The Balmera will save us."

"Shay, no!" Rax cries as the Balmera groans and the drones and Hunk exchange fire.

Shay yells and groans when a rope from the drones grab her and pull her back.

"Shay!" Hunk yells.

"Go! Make haste!" Shay tries to stop him.

"Let her go!" Hunk tries to save her.

"No, Hunk! We have to go!" Coran pulls him away desperately, "For Keith."

Hunk hesitates and heads to the pod, yelling, "I'll come back for you, Shay! I promise!"

"If we can't shake these patrols, we might be back here sooner than we want!" Coran replies as they try to escape the Galra.

Meanwhile, the mice squeak, working on the computer to bring the forcefield down.

"It worked!" Lance cries, impressed.

"They did it!" Allura celebrates.

Meanwhile, inside the castle, Sendak growls at Pidge's hologram.

Pidge pants, trying to wake Shiro, "Shiro, wake up. It's me, Pid-" she yells as she is grabbed from behind.

"You really thought your little hologram trick would work with me?" Sendak growls.

Pidge groans as Sendak holds her in an attempt to keep Lance and Allura away, "Stand back!" he threatens.

Lance fires his gun, causing Sendak to drop Pidge.

"No!" Sendak yells

The computer beeps and Shiro charges. Keith gets up and attacks Sendak with him, straining his injuries, Lance assisting him. Sendak grunts repeatedly before retreating. Keith collapses and Shiro catches him, lowering him down to the ground, whilst sitting down, causing Keith to rest his head on his lap. He strokes a few strands of hair form Keith's face. Lance immediately runs over whilst Allura checks on Pidge.

"Keith, are you okay?" Lance worries.

"We did it. We are a good team," Keith groans, before falling back unconscious.

Lance raises the hand Keith clutched to his forehead, holding it tight, "We really do."

Shiro smiles at his kids and whispers in Keith's ear so that Lance can't hear, a tear escaping his eye, "Wake up Yurak. Please don't leave us. Don't leave me."

Meanwhile, "We can't shake them! We're not going to make it!" Coran yells, but Hunk suggests **_the button,_** "Uh, it may turn us into a giant fireball."

"Maybe, but it's our only chance."

"Fine. Fire in the hole!"

Both start screaming and then there are a few explosions and they escape from the Galra and back to the Castle.

"We did it!" Hunk cheers as they rush the crystal into the Castle.

"After a day in here, he should be fully healed," Allura tells the team.

"Pidge, we can't thank you enough for all you did. I can't help but feel that you were meant to be a part of our team... but I understand if you want to leave," Shiro turns to Pidge, able to focus on something besides Keith.

"Dad used to tell me how close he was with his crew members. They were like family. Now I understand what he was talking about. I'm staying with you guys. Let's stop Zarkon for all of our families. For those like Keith ," Pidge replies.

"Good to have you back on the team," Lance grins, slapping Pidge's shoulder, bringing her into a hug that soon becomes a group hug; all of their eyes remaining on their ill teammate.


	11. Entertaining Entrancement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith is in a Pod and looking much better, so it seems preparations have been made to leave Arus.

In the Castle of Lions, Keith is sleeping inside a pod within the Sleep Chamber as his team watches, except Coran who is at the console.

"I can't tell if he looks healthy... or not," Hunk worries.

"I think he's breathing weird," Pidge panics slightly.

"Oh, come on!" Lance yells, frustrated.

Lance tries tapping on the pod, but Allura stops him, "Not yet! A few more ticks."

"How much better do you think he's gonna get in a few more ticks?" Lance argues.

"And what exactly is a tick?" Pidge questions, taking everyone's mind off of Keith for a moment.

"You know, a time-slice," Allura tells them.

"What, like a second?" Shiro joins the conversations, but remains distracted by Keith.

"What is a... "second"?" Allura wonders aloud.

Pidge takes out a clock counting seconds to show Allura, "Like this."

"I'm not sure. I think ticks are bigger. Coran, do you have a ticker?" Allura asks Coran.

"Right here, Princess," Coran takes out a ticker counting ticks to compare.

"I think ticks are a little slower," Hunk adds his two cents.

"I can't tell. We have to start them at the same time," Pidge decides.

"Okay. Ready, go!" Coran starts.

Both counters start together and everyone huddles around to watch (even Shiro comes closer to watch).

"Yes! I think we're winning," Hunk celebrates.

"Winning what? The intergalactic time-measuring competition?" Lance sasses.

"Yes."

Unbeknownst to the team, Keith exits the Sleep Pod and stumbles over. Shiro notices and moves to steady him, heaving Keith's arm over his shoulder to support him whilst he recovers from his time in the pod.

"You guys having a clock party?" Keith jokes, snapping everyone out of their stupor.

"Aw, Keith, you just ruined it. Uh—Hey, Keith!" Hunk suddenly realises and hugs Keith, causing him to splutter and laugh at the bear hug, relishing in the rare affection he has received over his short lifespan.

"What happened?" Keith asked. 

"We can tell you all about it while you get something to eat. Are you able to walk?" Allura asks.

"Talking? Eating? Are you asking him out on a date?" Lance jokes, but Allura is unimpressed, like most of the team.

Keith moves from next to Shiro and Hunk to Lance and slaps him over the top of his head, anger displayed in his frowning face.

"Hey!"

"Yep. There he is," Pidge grins brightly.

"Yep, he's okay," Shiro smiles softly, resting a hand on Keith's shoulder.

"Classic," Coran wipes a fake tear from his cheek.

The team moves to the Dining Hall while Keith eats food goo with the Altean Mice.

"You'd be Sendak's prisoner right now, if not for Pidge," Allura explains.

"Well, you wouldn't have survived the explosion if Hunk and Coran hadn't gotten a new Crystal," Pidge adds.

"Wow. Thanks, everybody. Sounds like the mice did more than you, though," Keith says to Lance.

"I shot Sendak!" Lance retaliates.

"Yeah, apparently after I emerged from a coma and fought him off," Keith snarks back, laughing at his reaction.

"We had a bonding moment. I held your hand as you fell into unconsciousness!" Lance yells, hurt.

"I wasn't conscious, remember? I don't remember it happening, but thanks... So, what happened to Sendak?" Keith apologises.

"He's frozen in a cryo-pod. We're keeping him here in the Castle," Allura answers him.

"I'm still not sure that's a good idea," Lance mutters.

"He's too dangerous to be set free. Besides, we might be able to get some information about Zarkon from him," Allura replies.

"So, what's the plan now?" Keith butts in, before any arguements break out.

"We have to get back to the Balmera and save Shay and her people," Hunk decides for the first time.

"Wow! You are really hung up on this lady," Lance jokes.

"No, it's not like that. Look, guys, when you see how Zarkon has treated these people and destroyed their home—They've been under his thumb for so long, they don't even know what it is to be free. It's up to us to set this right. This is what being a Paladin of Voltron is all about. It's time to man up," Hunk defends.

Pidge frowns.

"Then let's get moving. Time to go defend the universe," Shiro orders and the team begins to leave the Dining Hall.

Pidge stops them," Wait, I have something to say first. I need to come clean and... I'm afraid this may change the way you all think about me. Just so there are no secrets between us anymore, I can't "man up". ... I'm a girl."

Lance looks flabbergasted.

"I-I mean, I can "man up" because that's just a figure of speech. I don't have to actually be a man to "man up." I just have to be tough. But what I'm saying—"

"Huh—Eh—Wha—?! You're a girl!? HOW!?" Lance stutters, almost speechless.

"I've known for some time, but I'm glad you've shared it with everyone," Allura shows her support.

"Yeah, I figured," Hunk adds.

"Oh, yeah, me too. You look too much like your brother for me not to know," Keith smiles softly.

"Wait, w-we were supposed to think you were a boy?" Coran asks, surprised.

"Pidge, owning who you are is going to make you a better Paladin," Shiro supports her.

Pidge sighs in relief, "It's good to get that off my chest. Now, let's launch this Castleship!"

The team leaves, but Lance remains behind and shakes his head in disbelief, before quickly following, "Wait, what? Pidge is a girl, Keith knows her brother and the Castle is a ship? How am I more unaware of this stuff than Keith, who was unconscious for most of it?"

"Activate interlock," Allura starts the Ship.

"Dynotherms connected," Coran helps.

"Mega-thrusters are go."

"We are ready to depart Planet Arus on your mark, Princess."

"Firing main engines for launch."

The Castle of Lions launches from Arus as the Arusians watch.

Meanwhile, at Zarkon's Central Command, Prorok kneels before Zarkon on his throne. Haggar is at Zarkon's side.

"Sire, if capturing Voltron is the Empire's number-one priority, then I suggest we begin moving the main fleet toward its last known location posthaste," Prorok suggests.

"Lord, after many years, the Komar Experiment is finally ready. Soon, we could have more Quintessence at our fingertips than ever imagined. We must test it before moving the fleet," Haggar insists.

Prorok stands, "We don't have time for any more of your magic. We must move our ships now."

"Voltron is the most powerful weapon ever created. His puny ships will never be up to the task. We must be well prepared for our next encounter," Haggar continues to understand.

Zarkon slams his hands on his throne and Prorok immediately kneels again.

"I know better than anyone the power of Voltron. Haggar has my trust. We will perform her test," Zarkon growls.

Afterwards, Prorok speaks to Thace in the halls, "The witch has his ear. Keep sending our offer out to any scum between Planet Arus and Balmera X-95-Vox. I'll capture Voltron on my own."

Meanwhile, in the Castle of Lions, Hunk is pacing the Bridge, "Okay. So, when we get there, what do you think? Do we just roll up and like, start blasting? Or do we land and have some... kind of public address system, like, 'Attention, Galras. This is Voltron. Turn yourselves in!'" Hunk pauses and looks around, "No. Blasting, right?"

"Hunk, calm down. And yes, blasting," the edges of Keith's mouth quirk slightly.

"Eh, it's our first big rescue mission. He's excited," Shiro smiles.

"Excited to see his new girl-friend~" Pidge teases.

Hunk gasps in defense, "She's not my girlfriend! She's just a rock that I met and I admire very much."

Unusual alarms start blaring.

"What is it? Are we being attacked?" Shiro worries.

"No, it seems to be a distress beacon. It's coming from a nearby moon. Apparently, a ship has lost power," Allura informs them.

"I wonder who it is," Pidge, as always, questions.

"Whoever it is will have to wait. Shay has first priority. We can check back on them when we're done," Hunk answers.

"The Paladin Code states that we must help all those in need," Allura refuses.

"Wow! This is so cool. It's like we're space cops on space patrol. Coran, do we have a siren we can turn on?" Lance asks.

"Uh, no, but we could record you making a siren noise and broadcast that to them," Coran suggests.

"Perfect!" Lance exclaims and tries to imitate a siren.

Shiro places a hand over Lance's mouth, "No, not doing that."

The Castle of Lions lands on the moon where two aliens are waiting. 

Allura speaks over the intercom, "Attention, damaged craft, this is Princess Allura. We are coming to assist you."

Rolo is impressed by the sight, "Whoa. Nice ship."

In the Castleship Bridge, Allura prepares to exit with the Paladins and tells Coran to, "Stay aboard and try to get as many of our systems clear of that Galra crystal energy as you can. We'll see who hailed us."

"Yes, Princess."

Allura and the Paladins descend to greet the stranded crew on the moon's surface.

"You don't know how glad we are to see some friendly faces. Most folks don't want to get tangled up with anyone who's on the run from the Galra."

"So, you guys are fighting the Galra?" Keith questions.

"Well, I don't think Zarkon is exactly quaking in his boots at the three of us, but we do what we can. I'm Rolo. This is Nyma, and our cyber-unit, Beezer."

"Hi," Nyma says and Lance is struck by Nyma's beauty.

Pidge is amazed by Beezer, "Cool robot!"

Lance takes Nyma's hand, "Hi! Name's Lance."

"Was your ship damaged in a fight?" Shiro asks.

"Yeah, we've really been through it with the Galra. Parts are hard to come by. Luckily, we were able to limp to this moon about a week ago. If you didn't pick up our distress signal, I didn—" Rolo starts.

"We're happy to help. I am Princess Allura of Altea, and from now on, you won't be alone fighting the Galra. You'll have the Paladins of Voltron by your side."

Rolo compares the serious Shiro, Keith and Hunk with Lance and Pidge, who are goofing off with Nyma and Beezer. He is not impressed, "... Okay."

"I don't think they've heard of us," Shiro says aloud.

"It has been ten thousand years," Keith replies, remembering how everyone would disagree over the stories of Voltron being real or just myths.

"Voltron? Five robot Lions that combine into this big robot... guy?" Lance tries.

"Sounds impressive. I'd love to see it. Or—Or him. Them," Rolo answers.

"Why don't we just get to work on your ship? I'm sure we all have places to be," Hunk replies seriously.

"Sure," Rolo opens his spacecraft, "Pretty much our whole flaxum assembly is shot. I don't know what kind of extra parts you carry in this rig of yours. I've never seen anything quite like it."

In the background, Lance flirts with Nyma. Shiro smacks him.

"I'm sure we can get you back up and running. Give Hunk a list of what you need. Coran can show you where to find it," Allura offers.

"Okay," Hunk obeys.

"We'll go with you. Don't want you to have to carry all that yourself. Come on, guys," Rolo tries walking towards the Castle of Lions.

Hunk stops him, "Uh, I don't think so. You can just wait out here."

"Hunk, don't be rude," Allura chastises.

"Yeah, mind your manners. There are ladies present," Lance winks at Nyma, "Hey."

Shiro sighs.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, but does anyone remember the last time we let our defenses down? Someone kind of set off a bomb. Remember, Keith? You were almost killed," Hunk rants, almost growling.

"Oh, yeah..." Keith whimpers.

"Hunk's right. Sorry, but we have to be cautious," Shiro agrees, gaze hardening involuntarily, hand squeezing Keith's shoulder in reassurance.

"Hey, I don't take it personal. That's how it is out here. You've got to look out for your own. You're doing a good job, big man," Rolo says and hands Hunk a list of parts from Beezer.

"Yeah. Thanks," Hunk replies, taking it.

Rolo sits with Allura, Shiro and Keith. Pidge is distracted by Beezer. Lance is with Nyma.

"My planet was destroyed by the Galra and I was taken captive. I managed to escape, but not before I lost something," Rolo displays his prosthetic left leg.

"I know exactly how that feels," Shiro sympathises, glancing at his metal arm.

Keith squeezes Shiro's non-prosthetic in comfort, hair covering his eyes.

Hunk drags a hovercart full of parts over, "Well, I hope there are some parts in here that'll fit."

Rolo does not respond.

"... You know, to get your ship moving?"

"Great! Thanks."

"So, what can you tell us about Zarkon's forces? Where are they concentrated?" Allura asks.

"Well, his Command Ship sits right in the center of the Empire. He mostly calls the shots from there and has his minions do the work, depending on who's closest. This is the territory of a real nasty bugger named Sendak," Rolo growls.

"Oh, we've met," Keith winces.

"How far are we from the center?" Shiro questions, squeezing Keith's hand.

"We're way out on the fringes."

Hunk walks over, "Hey, sorry to interrupt, but I think you guys are kind of keeping Rolo from working. It's just that we're in a hurry. A hero named Shay saved my life, and I swore I would return to do the same for her and her people. You understand."

"Sure. Sorry," Rolo places a hand on Hunk's shoulder and then walks over to the hovercart to inspect the parts. 

Shiro approaches Hunk to whisper quietly, "Hunk, we're going to get going soon, but I think Rolo might have some information that could be helpful to us."

"Not for nothin' but I don't trust this guy as far as I can throw him. I think we ought to leave him with the box parts and just say, 'Adiós, amigo—'" Hunk replies.

"Hey, bud! Sorry, but do you think you could hunt down a length of thermal pipe about yay long?" Rolo gestures the length.

"On the way," Hunk groans and leaves. 

Shiro, Keith and Allura approach Rolo.

"So, are there more freedom fighters? Any kind of organized resistance to the Galra?" Shiro questions.

"Only folks who haven't been colonized yet, or the lucky few, like us, who managed to escape somehow," Rolo sighs.

"Well, we're going to change all that. So no one suffers like us again," Keith decides.

"That's good to hear, but I've got to warn you, it's pretty bad out there. You don't know what you're up against," Rolo informs them.

Lance is talking to Nyma away from the rest of the team, "I mean, there are only five of us in the entire universe, so... I guess you could say it's kind of a big deal."

"I don't understand. The Lions are ships? Are they, like, flying statues that you ride on?" Nyma asks.

"No, no, no. They're magic, but also super scientific and advanced. And they fly crazy fast and have all these incredible weapons. Really, the entire Castle is just insane! I wish you could see it," Lance sighs.

"Yes, it's too bad we're not allowed inside. I would love a tour from one of the knights. But I guess the big one is in charge, huh? You have to obey his orders?" Nyma wonders.

"Who, Hunk? Pfft, I don't have to listen to him!" Lance brings Nyma inside the Castle of Lions to the Bridge.

"This place is incredible!"

"Yeah, I guess. You get used to it."

"But it's so gigantic. It must take you forever to get to your Lion."

"Ooh, you'd be surprised," Lance says and brings Nyma with him down the zip-line to the Blue Lion's cockpit, "Pretty slick, right?"

"Unbelievable! Take me on a ride around the moon?" Nyma asks.

"Uh—We should probably get back to the others."

"Yeah, you're right. Maybe Keith will give me a ride."

"No! Whoah, whoah, hold on a second! I mean what's the point of having the Lion if you can't enjoy it, right? Giddy-up, buddy!" Lance changes his mind, in an attempt to keep Nyma fond of him and to keep Keith from an uncomfortable situation whilst he still recovers and Lance activates the Blue Lion and takes off with Nyma. 

Hunk is working on Rolo's ship, but witnesses the Blue Lion leave, "Oh, Lance!"

"Ah, let them have their fun. Thanks to you, this thing is just about ready, so we're going to be on our way soon. Too many light years on that guy, I guess," Rolo tries to thank Hunk.

Hunk suspiciously eyes the part he replaced, "Yeah."

Meanwhile, Zarkon's Command Ship hovers above an unnamed planet. Haggar stands on a floating platform in the ship in the center of her four Druids.

"Begin the ritual. Druids of the Four Directions, join us!" Haggar's experiment saps the planet of all its Quintessence and stores it in the Command Ship.

Haggar approaches Zarkon, "The Komar Experiment was a success. We have gained an entire planet's Quintessence, a feat that would have normally taken us years."

"Most impressive. This will revolutionize the way we advance throughout the galaxy. Mining and colonizing planets is a thing of the past. With this much power available at our whim, we can now spend all of our time hunting down and capturing Voltron," Zarkon almost praises.

Meanwhile, Lance is flying the Blue Lion around the moon.

"Look, a kinetic spring! Let's land over there. The minerals reflect off the water, making a rainbow," Nyma points.

The Blue Lion flies over the spring, causing water to spray and a rainbow to appear.

"Wow. Is there anything you don't know?"

With Lance distracted, Nyma presses a button on her bracelet to signal Rolo. 

Rolo suddenly exits the engine of his ship, "I think this thing is just about ready for a test flight. Beezer, come co-pilot for me. Be back in a tick."

Rolo and Beezer enter their ship, leaving the Voltron team dumbfounded outside.

"Uh..." Hunk is speechless.

Rolo's spacecraft takes flight with no issues at all. Elsewhere, Lance and Nyma stand at the kinetic spring by a tree.

"So, ah, you want to see how fast I can climb this tree?" Lance flirts.

Nyma giggles, "Aw, you are cute. Let me show you something. Give me your hand."

Lance offers Nyma his hand and she handcuffs him to the tree, "Whoa! Uh, this is... kind of..."

Rolo's ship appears and abducts the Blue Lion.

"Nyma, what's going on?"

"Sorry, Lance. Maybe we'll meet again," Nyma is raised into her ship and it takes off, leaving Lance behind. 

Lance looks around for his helmet to contact his team and sees it out of reach, "Oh, Quiznak..."

The rest of the team is waiting outside the Castle of Lions.

"How many ticks have they been gone?" Pidge moans.

"I don't know. I hope they didn't break down again," Allura worries.

"Something ain't right," Hunk mutters.

After much struggling, Lance reaches his helmet with his leg and uses its communicator, "Guys? Hello? Little help?"

"Lance? Lance! Are you all right? W-What's going on?" Shiro immediately questions.

"Well, I'm kind of chained to a... a tree," Lance admits.

"I knew it!" Hunk practically cheers.

"And I think Nyma and Rolo just stole the Blue Lion," Lance continues.

"I knew it!" Hunk repeats.

"Where are they?" Shiro ignores him.

"Uh... space?"

"Uh, I never trusted those guys, right from the beginning!" Hunk rants at length as the Paladins head to their Lions, "I mean, y'know, at first, it was just like a feeling in my gut, you know? But when I was replacing that thermal pipe, the pipe was cracked, but none of the hardware around it was damaged."

"Okay, we get it!" Keith finally snaps.

"I mean, if the thermal pipe is cracked, then, obviously, hello, the entire assembly should be totally roasted!" Hunk continues.

"Okay! We get it," Keith tries again, practically growling.

"We should've had to replace the entire undercarriage of that reactor. So, right then, I was, like, positive. Foul play," Hunk refuses to stop.

"Okay, we get it!" Everyone yells.

The remaining Lions chase after Rolo, Nyma and Beezer.

Rolo contacts Prorok through a video transmission, "Commander Prorok, my name is Rolo. I understand you're offering a reward to anyone helping capture the Voltron Lions."

"That's correct. Do you know where they are?" Prorok asks.

"I know where the blue one is. It's in my ship."

"Excellent. Bring it to me and you'll have your reward immediately."

"Just a tick. You see, my friends and I have a bit of a checkered past. Some stolen merchandise from the Galra Empire may have fallen into our possession without us knowing about it."

"Well, I'm sure that a full pardon can be arranged for the brave souls who bring Emperor Zarkon a Voltron Lion. Is that all?"

"We'll take the reward, too," Nyma adds.

"Of course."

"All right. We're on our way," Rolo end the transmission and stretches, "I almost feel sorry for those Voltron folks. Seemed like a nice bunch."

"If you're feeling guilty, you can turn yourself in. Stealing from Zarkon carries a life sentence," Nyma adds.

"They don't seem... that nice."

Meanwhile, Prorok stands on his warship and speaks to Thace, "Send the nearest fighter squadron to the area of the transmission. I'm not trusting some bounty hunter with our prize."

Meanwhile, Rolo's alarms start blaring because the remaining Lions are closing in, "No way," Rolo starts to fly his spacecraft to safety.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing? There's no way we can outrun those Lions."

"Not in the open. Good thing the Zorlar asteroid belt is right up here. I know that like the back of my hand."

The criminal aliens fly into the asteroid belt.

"We'll never get through this asteroid field!" Pidge observes.  
"Maybe I can just bust through!" Hunk slams the Yellow Lion into an asteroid, causing all the asteroids to bump against each other, "Nope. That was wrong. That was a bad idea."

"Keith, you're the only one who could possibly fly through this. We need you, buddy. Get in there and flush him out," Shiro encourages him.

"You got it. See you on the other side," Keith pursues Rolo in the Red Lion, navigating the asteroid field easily. 

Rolo's computer shows the Red Lion nearby, "No way. Get on the blasters. Take him down!"

"Copy," Nyma says and she and Beezer fire the ship's laser blasters at the Red Lion. 

Keith dodges the attacks and fires his Lion's mouth cannon in retaliation.

"This kid can flat-out fly," Rolo compliments.

"He's gaining on you!"

Rolo tries tricking Keith into crashing into an asteroid. Keith avoids the trick and flings the Red Lion's jaw blade at Rolo's spacecraft. The attack disables the ship's weapons.

"Blasters are offline!"

"We've got to get out of here!" Rolo tries to flee. 

Keith fires the Red Lion's mouth cannon at their engines. The criminal's ship is knocked out of the asteroid belt. Keith catches them with the Red Lion. The other Lions arrive.

"Yeah! Haha! Hey, Lance, I got your Lion back."

Lance and Keith talk through their helmets' communicators.

"Thank you, Keith. Now, can you come and unchain me?"

"What's that? I, uh... Y-You're cutting out. I can't—I can't hear you."

"Oh, come on! I thought we bonded. Keith? Buddy? My man?"

The team rescues Lance and returns Rolo and his crew to the alien moon with their broken ship. They stand outside the Castle of Lions.

"Since your ship really doesn't work now, you'll have to wait here for a rescue," Keith mutters dejectedly.

"Thanks... for sparing our lives," Rolo thanks them.

"Now that these guys are dealt with, let's get to the Balmera and save Shay and her family," Hunk returns his focus to Shay again.

"You may not believe this, but I hope you do stop Zarkon," Rolo says, "It's a lifetime of fighting the Galra that led me to where I am today."

The team looks considerate, but does not respond and leaves. 

Elsewhere, Haggar is somewhere in the Galra Empire speaking to a small reptilian creature while holding a canister of Quintessence, "All this Quintessence will turn you into the strongest, most horrifying fighter ever created. One that even Voltron will not be able to defeat."


	12. Eventually

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Lance let his guard down and was tricked, things worked out. Now, the Balmera is in sight, but victory in the battle ahead is a little trickier to spot.

The Castle of Lions is approaching the Balmera. The team stands in the Bridge.

"We'll be arriving at the Balmera soon. Liberating these Balmerans from Zarkon's grasp will not be easy," Allura reports.

"So, what's the plan? We go in there and just—Pow, pow, pow!" Lance asks, imitating laser fire, "-And free the prisoners?"

"What was that noise?" Keith questions, cocking his head slightly.

"Laser guns," Lance answers.

"No, Lance, I think you mean—" Hunk imitates a huge laser cannon, "-Pow!"

"That sounds like fireworks," Lance grumbles.

"Technically, they're more like—ba-choo, ba-choo, ba-choo!" and now Pidge is imitating firing a small laser gun.

"Okay, enough with the bad sound effects. ... Besides, it's more like— blam, blam, blam!" even Shiro joins in, but this time, he dramatically imitates firing a laser gun unlike the others.

"What?" Keith splutters.

"You're crazy," Pidge replies.

"No way," Lance disapproves.

"Nuh—Wrong," Hunk adds.

"Paladins, focus," Allura sighs.

"Besides, we can't just shoot at the Galra. This Balmera, it's, like, alive. And from what we've seen, it doesn't look very good," Hunk focuses on the mission at hand.

"Yes, it's an atrocity what the Galra have been doing to this grand beast. Stealing its Crystals, its very life force, without ever performing the energy rejuvenation ceremonies to heal it," Coran informs them.

"After seeing Shay's people enslaved, it made me realize how bad Zarkon really is. And we're the only ones who can stop him," Hunk almost growls.

"Okay, so we can't go into the tunnels guns blazing. Plan B. We figure out how to draw the Galra up to the surface and battle them out there," Shiro decides.

"Wait, I know! If we attack all of this big mining stuff on the surface, the Galra troops will have to come out to defend it. Then we beat them up, head down to the tunnels, Voltron saves the day," Hunk suggests and somehow, through the magic of fanfiction and animation, a cartoon image of Hunk's plan appears (in Keith's mind, he can hear the approval of the Lions and Yellow's pride).

"But how will we know how many are left down in the tunnels?" Shiro questions, popping Hunk's bubble.

"We can track the Galra and the Balmerans using Biothermal Life Indicator Point Technology," Allura supplies and brings up a hologram of a BLIP drone.

"Oh, BLIP tech!" Pidge says.

Allura does not understand and stares at Pidge silently.

"... It's an acronym?"

"One of you will need to fly around the Balmera and drop sensors into the shafts on each side," Allura ignores her and the hologram imitates the plan, "Then we'll be able to see where the Galra and the Balmerans are. There are already sensors built into your suits."

"I can do it. I just modified the Green Lion with the invisible maze's cloaking ability. I should be able to fly around unnoticed," Pidge volunteers.

Coran brings up an image of the Balmera's surface on screen, "That's their main power generator. If you take that down, it will severely weaken their defenses."

"We'll stay in cloud cover and give tactical support. With the Castle's defenses weakened from Sendak's Crystal, we won't be of much help to you," Allura adds.

"I'll take out the power generator. Keith, Lance, Hunk, you take out these big mining rigs around the area," Shiro orders.

"Yeah! Okay, let's do this! Let's go kick some alien butt!" Hunk says, for once, enthusiastically.

The Paladins prepare to launch.

"You think the Balmerans will have a parade for us after we've freed everybody?" Lance says.

Keith sends a video transmission to Lance, Blue's laughter catching his attention, "It's not about the glory, Lance. It's about freeing prisoners from Zarkon."

"No, I know. I know. But still. When they—" Lance is cut off as the Blue Lion launches from the Castle, jolting Lance. 

The Lions fly towards the Balmera's surface and the Galra structures start firing lasers, so Shiro begins, "This is it. Get your heads in the game. Remember, the Balmera is a living creature. Make sure you pinpoint only the Galra installations and not its surface."

"Initiating cloak," Pidge says and the Green Lion separates from the group and turns invisible to drop BLIP drones. 

Lance and Hunk destroy Galra weapons.

"How do I take this thing down?" Shiro wonders aloud, struggling with his task, so the Black Lion displays its Jaw Blade on the screen of the cockpit, "What's that? Jaw blade? Okay! Let's do this!" Shiro uses the Black Lion's jaw blade to destroy the power generator. 

Pidge finishes dropping BLIP drones, "All sensors delivered."

A holographic map of the Balmera and all living lifeforms on it appears in the Castle of Lions. The power generator still has an active and massive laser cannon attacking the Red Lion. After dodging, the Red Lion fires its heat ray to melt through the cannon's tower.

"Whoa! Did you guys just see that? I got fire power!" Keith almost laughs at Red's pride and showboating attitude.

"Hey! I want that!" Lance and Blue almost simultaneously whine.

The cannon tower begins to fall towards the Balmera's surface.

"Oh, no!" Keith cries.

"Hey, we can't let this thing hurt the Balmera!" Hunk struggles to hold the tower upright with the Yellow Lion.

"I think my Lion knows what to do!" Lance uses the Blue Lion's freeze ray to freeze the tower in place, "Ha-Aw, snap! These rays are super cool, just like me!" Lance yells, Blue boasting to the other lions.

"Great job, team!" Shiro praises.

The Paladins wait for troops from the Galra Empire to appear. Nothing happens.

"Where are all the troops? They're not coming to the surface," Keith wonder aloud, knowing the Empire don't just ignore rebellions.

Hunk sends Keith a video transmission, "Yeah, I remember seeing a lot of Galra guys down in the mines."

Allura is looking at a map of the Balmera and radios to the Paladins, "We've located a hangar full of Galra fighters just below the surface. Someone has to take those out before they can launch."

"They're luring us down, but we have no choice. Keith, Lance, you guys hit the hangar. Hunk, head to the prison to rescue Shay and the other Balmerans. Pidge and I will track down the Galra soldiers," Shiro orders, knowing Keith's heritage will prove useful but worrying about separating.

"Yes, sir!" Keith and Red reply.

"Ten-four!" Lance acknowledges, whilst Blue laughs.

"On it!" Pidge responds with Green.

"Let's do this!" Hunk and Yellow agree.

The Lions fly off to do their respective tasks.

Meanwhile, a Galra commander called Thace approaches his superior at Zarkon's Central Command System.

"Commander Prorok, we have word from the troops on Balmera X-95 Vox. The informants were right. Voltron is there," Thace reports.

"Excellent. Everything is going according to plan," Prorok admits.

"How do you wish to proceed? Should we inform Emperor Zarkon?" Thace asks.

"Contact Subcommander Ylvik. His fleet is awaiting my command. Tell him it's time to attack. I will update the Emperor."

The Paladins drop their Lions at the bottom of mine shafts and navigate the tunnels with their speeders. Keith and Lance scope out the Galra hangar.

"The entire hangar's only being guarded by a few Sentries," Keith readies his Bayard and prepares to attack, "Let's go!"

Lance grabs Keith and pulls him back, "Whoa, w-w-whoa, whoa! Cool your jets, Keith! Don't you remember all that stuff about this Balmera thing being a sensitive animal?"

"Oh. Right," Keith replies, having forgotten from his genetic need to fight taking control for a moment.

"Yeah, so we can't just blow things up like a psycho," Lance chides slightly, his hand squeezing Keith's arm slightly before letting go.

"Oh, You got a better idea?" Keith asks.

"I do. We sneak into the control room to shut down the bay doors. That'll trap the ships in," Lance suggests.

"That—! ... Actually... is a better idea," Keith admits, before he and Lance start sneaking towards the hangar's control room. 

The Castleship is tracking everyone's movements. 

Hunk is in his speeder traversing the mine tunnels, "Allura, Coran, w-what's my location? All these tunnels look the same. I can't remember where the prison is."

"You're on the right path. Turn right at the next tunnel. Once you get there, you'll have to disable the energy doors. Be careful. It looks like it's heavily guarded," Coran advises.

Meanwhile, Keith and Lance are breaking in to the control room of the hangar from above. A Sentry stands at the controls.

"No, no. It's over here," Lance beckons Keith over.

"I know what I'm doing," Keith replies and uses his Bayard to slice a hole in the ceiling above the Sentry. 

Lance kicks the hole open, crushing the Sentry underneath its weight. Both Paladins enter the control room.

"Keep an eye out for those guards. I'll see if I can find a way to shut the hangar doors," Lance starts to look around, so Keith nods and stands watch as Lance inspects the computer console, "Uh... Hmm. Nope. Maybe. Uh... Uh... Mm..." Lance presses buttons to no avail, "Ah, I don't know what I'm doing here. It's all Galra gibberish."

"Let me see," Keith inspects the console and then puts his hand on the hand print, activating the bay doors and closing them.

"Whoa! How'd you do that?" Lance asks.

"I just put my hand on the hand print," Keith deadpans, not wanting to admit his heritage until he felt the others would understand.

Hunk approaches the prison in his speeder. Galra Sentries are fleeing, but some fire at him. Hunk exits his speeder and blasts the Sentries with his Bayard cannon.

"That was way too easy. I definitely don't have a good feeling about this, " Hunk uses a broken Sentry hand to unlock the prison doors and enter, finding Shay's family, but not Shay.

"Hunk, you have returned!" Shay's father declares, causing Shay's family to greet Hunk, except Rax, who sits aside.

"I promised I'd be back. We're here to help. Where's Shay?"

"Our life may not have been perfect, but our family was whole. Your arrival has left us imprisoned and torn apart. As soon as your attack started, they took her away to the core of the Balmera. For all we know, she could be gone for good," Rax answers, full of despair.

Allura notices strange movement by the Galra on the Castleship's map, "Paladins, are you there? The Galra troops are moving down the tunnels. It looks like they're going down toward the center."

"They must be headed to the core of the Balmera. That's where they're holding Shay," Hunk replies and rushes off to the Balmera's core. 

Shiro, meanwhile, is still in his speeder, "They're drawing us into an ambush, but we don't have a choice if we want to save Shay. We have to follow. Lance, Keith, get to the core. I think we're going to need everyone together to get through this firefight."

Lance and Keith are still in the control room. The bay doors finish shutting.

"Copy that. We're on our way," Lance answers as Keith damages the computer console, followed by Lance damaging the lock to the door so no one can access it, before they both leave. 

Pidge is in her speeder, but the tunnel becomes too narrow. 

Allura speaks to Pidge over their communication channel, "Looks like you're in an area where the tunnels are too narrow for your speeder."

"Yeah. Proceeding on foot," Pidge confirms and enters the narrow tunnel and sees shadows approaching, "There's someone here."

"Looking into it," Allura replies as the shadows come closer, Pidge summoning her Bayard and rushing to attack, "Pidge, no! Those are Balmerans!"

Pidge stops when she sees Balmeran children, "Phew!" Pidge greets the children, but the Balmera groans and trembles, so the Balmeran children run in fear; one child trips and is nearly crushed by falling rock, but Pidge saves them, "Don't worry," Pidge speaks to the other Paladins through the communication channel, "Hey, team, be careful. The Balmera is very unstable."

Lance and Keith immediately run into a squadron of Galra Sentries that bombard them with laser fire.

"Their shooting is destroying the Balmera. We gotta do something!" Keith growls, Red and the other Lions angry at the Balmera crying in pain.

"Well, we can't shoot back! It'll just make it worse," Lance looks around and devises a plan, then tries to direct Keith with motions instead of words.

"Huh?" Keith does not understand at all, but looks around and figures out what Lance intends and climbs to sneak above the Sentries. 

Lance jumps out in front of them and waves his arms, "Na-na Na-na boo-boo!" Lance defends himself with his shield as the Sentries fire at him. 

Keith jumps down from above and attack the Sentries, destroying them. Lance gives Keith a thumbs-up.

Hunk, meanwhile, runs to the core of the Balmera and finds no one there but Shay, muzzled and hanging from the ceiling, "Shay! You're alive!" and then shoots Shay free and catches her as she falls. 

Shiro and Pidge then arrive.

"Where are the Galra? If this is an ambush, they should be here waiting for us," Shiro wonders.

Keith and Lance arrive only for the doors to the core suddenly all shut.

"Not an ambush. More like a trap," Hunk sighs.

"Whatever it is, keep your guard up," Keith warns, partly from previous encounters with the race and partly voicing the Lions' thoughts.

"The Galra, they gained knowledge that you would return to the Balmera," Shay informs them.

"How?" Pidge asks.

"I know not. But they set this trap just for you. I was the bait," Shay replies sadly.

"Who could have possibly known that we were heading here to save Shay?" Shiro asks aloud.

"Rolo! Those liars must have told Zarkon," Hunk growls.

"We have to figure out how to get out of here," Shiro orders.

"Wait! We have a giant Castleship hovering in the sky. Allura, can you please come get us?" Lance asks.

"How do you expect her to do that, genius?" Keith facepalms.

"I don't know, maybe they got teleporters or something," Lance replies, causing Keith to deal with the exasperated sighs of the Lions.

Turns out, Allura and Coran are on the Castleship and under attack.

"We're quite occupied at the moment. We're completely surrounded by Galra ships and we're taking heavy fire!" Allura informs them.

"Princess, our particle barrier won't last much longer!"

"Paladins, you need to get out of there as soon as you can!"

In the core of the Balmera, Lance looks dejected.

"This is it! We're going to die in here. I can say bye-bye to that parade," Lance cries dramatically.

No one is impressed.

"Get it together, guys. Allura, we'll get there as soon as we can," Shiro informs her.

"Perhaps my people can help us get out," Shay places her hand on the Balmera's core, "This is how we communicate. The Balmera senses our vibrations and sends a message to those in the tunnels."

"Are you sure someone will be able to hear your... hand from all the way down here?" Keith asks.

"The Balmera will deliver the message," Shay focuses and the area around her hand glows. 

The Balmera groans as it sends the message to Rax and their family. 

Rax places his hand on the ground and it glows, "It's a message from Shay."

"She's alive!" Shay's father cheers.

"The Paladins of Voltron went to the core of the Balmera to save Shay... and now they are all trapped," Rax continues.

"Then we are all doomed," Shay's father slouches.

"This is all my fault. I conspired against them, and because of my actions, Shay was imprisoned. The big yellow one was right. If we ever hope to be free, we must take action," Rax decides.

"But how can we rise up against our Galra overlords?" Shay's father questions.

"What choice do we have? They have stolen all of the Crystals from our Balmera. Our lives are worthless to them now," Rax tries.

"But Balmerans have never fought," Shay's father replies.

"You taught me that without family, we have nothing. The Galra have taken Shay. How can we do nothing while the Paladins sacrifice everything to save us? We must do our part!" Rax declares.

Meanwhile, a Galra kneels before Zarkon on the Emperor's Command Ship, "Lord Zarkon, I have news to report. News that will likely please you, my Emperor."

"Proceed."

"I have the Voltron Paladins trapped on a Balmera in the Javeeno star system. I've ordered a fleet to capture the Lions and destroy the Altean Castle."

"You fool! You dare make plans without informing me?"

"Forgive me, Emperor... but I saw an opportunity and I took it for the glory of the Galra Empire."

"I suspect that you are seeking your own glory, Prorok. But you do not realize Voltron's power."

At the Balmera, a fleet of Galra fighter jets splits off from the ones attacking the Castle of Lions.

"They're heading down into the tunnels! They're going to steal the Lions!" Coran reports.

"Paladins, the Lions are in danger! You must get back to them immediately!" Allura commands.

"Princess, something's locked onto us."

A Galra warship suddenly appears.

"Paladins, do you copy? There's a battle cruiser locked onto us. If it fires with its ion cannon, I don't know if we can survive," Allura reports.

"We're trying, Allura. Shay's pressing her hand against the wall, which apparently sends vibrations to the other rock people, who vibrate back or something? Hand talking? I guess the answer to your question is, 'Yes, we copy,'" Lance rants.

"Shay, are you sure the Balmera is sending your message?" Shiro asks.

Shay focuses harder. Her family stands outside a doorway to the core and uses their hands to instruct the Balmera into crushing the doorway open. Rax and his family enter the core of the Balmera.

"Rax!" Shay yells.

"We must make haste. We know a shortcut through the tunnels," Ray instructs.

"Allura, stand by. We're on our way up," Shiro reports.

Meanwhile, two fighter jets are using tractor beams to raise the Black Lion.  
Allura speaks over the communication channel, "Paladins, hurry! They're taking off with the Lions!"

Shiro launches his speeder towards the Black Lion, slipping through a hole in its force field to take control and free the Lion from the Galra, "Guys, did everyone make it to the Lions in time?"

"Come on, Shiro. Who you think you're dealing with, a bunch of amateurs—" Lance is not paying attention so the Blue Lion runs into a mining structure.

"Do you really want me to answer that?"

"No."

"Let's go!" Shiro orders.

The Paladins fly their Lions at the large fleet of Galra fighter jets and engage in battle.

"Hunk, watch out!" Pidge shields the Yellow Lion from laser fire with the Green Lion's back shield.

"Got you covered!" Shiro uses the Black Lion's jaw blade to destroy the fighter jets.

"Phew! Thanks, guys!" Hunk thanks.

Up above, the Galra warship prepares to fire.

"It's charging its ion cannon!" Coran reports.

"Divert all shields to the bow," Allura instructs.

The Castle of Lions focuses its particle barrier to take the brunt of the assault and struggles to survive the blast from the ion cannon.

"Paladins, I need you immediately! Five more ticks and we're finished!" Allura informs them.

"Okay, team, let's form Voltron!" Shiro directs the Paladins.

"Yeah!" the Paladins cheer and form Voltron and slam into the Galra warship, diverting its cannon away from the Castle of Lions.

"Right now is our chance, Princess!" Coran tells Allura.

"Full power on the blasters! Locked onto target. Fire!"

The Castle of Lions blasts the Galra warship through, causing it to explode and destroy all surrounding fighter jets.

"Yeah!" Keith and Hunk cheer, the Lions cheering with them.

"Nice shot, Princess!" Pidge complements.

"Yeah! The parade's back on," Lance whoops.

Meanwhile, Prorok still kneels before Zarkon in the throne room of the Emperor's Command Ship. 

A Galra soldier speaks over the intercomm, "The Galra fleet and all Sentries on the Balmera have been defeated!"

"No! How could this be? Lord Zarkon, I will do all that I can to recapture Voltron for the Galra!" Prorok defends himself.

"Silence, Prorok. I have plans that you cannot comprehend," Zarkon orders.

Meanwhile, Voltron lands on the Balmera. The Castle of Lions descends towards the surface.

"Mission accomplished," Keith reports, grinning at the congratulations from the Lions.

"And just in the tick of time. The Castle's defenses are battered and will need to fully recharge," Allura replies.

The Castle alarms start blaring.

"There's an unknown object incoming! It's about to crash into the Balmera!" Coran yells.

A transport ship carrying the Robeast Drazil crashes into the Balmera.

"What the heck is that?" Lance screams as the Lions growl.

"... Trouble," Shiro answers.


End file.
